


Fangs and Fury

by morgana07



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Angry Sam Winchester, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt Dean Winchester, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Violence, Protective Sam Winchester, Season/Series 08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-08
Updated: 2013-06-24
Packaged: 2017-12-14 07:02:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 59,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/834074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgana07/pseuds/morgana07
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After another fight, Sam goes out to cool off when Dean gets jumped by vampires looking to use him as bait or food. It’s up to Sam to find his brother before he’s turned or killed & he’s forced to call upon the last person he ever wanted to ask for help or risk losing Dean again but saving him won’t be as simple as either Sam or Benny think. *Hurt/limp/angry/sick!Dean; Protective/concerned/worried/furious!Sam (Benny’s here as well)* Set between 08x10 Torn & Frayed and 08x11 LARP & the Real Girl.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I’ll warn for language as always. Also, as it goes there will be some minor descriptive violence but I’ll warn per chapter for that as I normally do.

** Chapter One **

****

****

“‘ _He’s a damn vampire! One of the things we hunt_!’”

“‘ _He’s how I survived Purgatory! Without him I wouldn’t have gotten out, especially since my so-called brother decided I wasn’t worth looking for_.’”

“‘ _So I’m just managed to disappoint you again? Is that it? Is that why you didn’t bother to tell me that you were sneaking off to help a vampire_?’”

“‘ _Benny’s been more of a brother to me than you’ve been in years_.’”

It was that last jab that really twisted the knife in Sam Winchester’s chest or back depending on what mood he was in and right then he was in a royally pissed off one as he stalked through the aisles of the closest town with a larger than normal market.

It hadn’t been a secret to anyone that since his older brother’s return from a year in Purgatory that the Winchester brothers hadn’t been on the same page and while Sam accepted, mostly to himself, that a good chunk of it was because of what he’d done in those twelve months…or more to the point what he let Dean think he hadn’t done.

Dean also had to share part of the blame and that was what had ignited the fight between them last night and had carried over to this morning.

Ever since Sam had learned about Benny, the vampire that his brother met and brought out of Purgatory with him, the strain between them had increased ten-fold because it had been hate on Sam’s part from the first time he’d shaken hands with the…thing.

Sam wasn’t sure if his hate came from the fact that Benny was a vampire, one of the things that they’d been trained to hunt and kill since they’d been kids, or if it was something else and if it was then Sam sure as hell never planned to admit that to his brother right then.

His brother had been pissed from the first moment of learning that Sam hadn’t looked for him and the little hurtful jabs and sarcasm was getting worse every day until when Dean lured Sam back to Texas to keep him from going after Benny or…

Sam wasn’t really sure why Dean had tricked him with that fake text message. He’d known that Dean didn’t want him or Martin going after Benny and perhaps if Sam’s inner hate or jealousy…no, he was not jealous of some stupid vampire, he might have considered that Benny might have been innocent of killing those people like Dean was so positive about.

But he wasn’t ready to forget that the man…thing was a vampire who drank blood to survive. He couldn’t forget how easy it would be for that bloodlust to overtake him and possibly turn on Dean, which is the other reason Sam wanted him dead because he did not want to deal with his brother as a vampire again…even if that other time had been Sam’s soulless self’s fault.

So Dean had kept Benny a secret and he was still keeping what happened in Purgatory mostly to himself even though Sam could tell by his brother’s body language, the way he was nearly always on edge, and how he slept that it hadn’t been good and tried not to push because that usually ended up with another fight and more harsh words.

This morning though had been one of the worst fights that Sam could recall since back when Dean returned from Hell and Sam was sneaking around with Ruby.

Sam knew he’d had the choice to stay away after he went back to Texas. He knew after he and Dean had helped Cas rescue Samandriel that he could’ve gone back to Amelia.

Dean had given him the option and he still had his brother’s stinging words about Benny being a better brother in his head and heart but he’d stayed because in the end…Sam had missed his brother and wanted to get past all of this to maybe find a way to be how they used to be but…it never seemed to work out like that.

They’d gotten a case in some small town in Louisiana with what was supposed to be witches. It was supposed to be a simple in and out case but it was now going on two days and it wasn’t turning out to be as simple which of course Dean tossed out that it had been Sam’s fault for not doing enough research into the case and how a year odd had made him sloppy.

Jabbing him about the life he’d tried to make with Amelia was one thing, throwing it up that his skills at hunting might’ve lapsed some since he couldn’t be bothered to even look for his own brother could be ignored though it ticked him off but it was when he got Benny tossed in his face again that Sam had finally snapped.

“‘ _If you think some goddamn freakin’ vampire is a better brother or partner for you then why the hell don’t you go hunt with him_?’” Sam had pushed his older brother against the wall in a heartbeat but had forgotten that since returning Dean’s reactions were on a hair trigger and soon had an elbow to the face for his trouble and then all hell had broken loose between the brothers.

Except for the time last week or so when Dean had been overtaken by some cursed penny, this was the first time in a long time that actual real blows had been exchanged between them and it was only when the blade of his brother’s knife pressed into his throat that Sam slowly began to understand just how raw and battered Dean still was from his time in Purgatory.

“‘ _Why don’t you go back to little Miss Normal and the dog, Sam_?’” Dean had countered tightly, voice nothing but raw emotion that he was fighting to keep inside and not explode like it had been trying to from the first night he was back. “‘ _You wanted out. You were out and I told you to go back if you didn’t want to be here because clearly you trust my judgment again and if I can’t count on you to have my back then why even bother_?’”

This wouldn’t have been the first time he and Dean had been fighting and lashing out to hurt and it wouldn’t even be the first time that something or someone had come between them if Sam counted Castiel and Ruby but this time it had hurt him a lot deeper than he was willing to show.

Something must have shown in Sam’s eyes because it was then that Dean’s green eyes seemed to clear a little of the haze and he momentarily looked shocked to see that he had his blade at Sam’s throat.

Then he merely eased back but didn’t say anything as Sam rolled to his feet with the excuse of going to the store for supplies. He also didn’t reply if he’d be there when Sam got back.

Feeling the keys to the Impala in his pocket though gave Sam some reassurance that his brother would remain at their motel back in Saundersville while he finished the shopping.

Sam had needed out, wanted the space to work off his own temper and hurt without being around his brother because when either of them was hurting or angry then nothing got said that needed to be said, just more crap to see who could hurt the other the most.

The two hour drive had given Sam some time to cool down…so long as he didn’t think about his brother and Benny. Then the hate came pouring back.

They were hunters. It had been drilled into their heads by an ex-Marine Dad that there were no gray areas, despite what Pastor Jim often said, and that anything supernatural was evil and needed to die.

Okay, so they’d let that girl a couple months skip away when she’d been turned into a werewolf but…Sam excused that for the moment because she seemed to have her head about her even though Dean had killed Amy because of what she was.

Though in Sam’s reasonable thinking mind he accepted that his brother had reacted to Amy so that Sam didn’t have to kill her in the long run and suffer the pain he had after Madison but Benny was a damn vampire and vampires couldn’t live without killing…except…

Growling at himself, Sam tossed a box of Lucky Charms into the cart even though he hadn’t eaten that stuff since he’d been a kid but wanted it now. He also considered the choice of pies before putting several in the cart for his brother.

When Sam was feeling guilty he remembered to buy pie for Dean and as he randomly scuffed the toe of his boot on the tile floor while debating on choices of can chili he was pushing the mild guilt down because he remembered all too well a time seven years ago when their roles had been reversed.

He could recall only too well when he’d been the one trying to convince his older brother that there were some vampires out there that tried to live among humans and didn’t kill to live.

Sam remembered Lenore and her nest and how he tried to protect her from Gordon. Back then Sam had been the one trusting the words of a vampire that her nest didn’t take the lives of humans, only animals and he’d been on the receiving end of Dean’s fist.

Now it was all turned around because it was Dean trying to convince him that Benny didn’t kill for the blood he needed and that he wasn’t a threat and all Sam saw was the evil that he’d been trained to kill.

Of course, Lenore hadn’t been something that Sam viewed as more than just a threat physically. Sure, she’d been a vampire and one of those things they killed but she posed no threat to…

Nope, Sam was pushing that away because he totally refused to even let that enter his head because it would make him feel more stupid or childish than he often did when he’d lock himself in the bathroom after his brother would fall to sleep and try to not let Dean know how much this thing with Benny, and Dean’s belief that Sam hadn’t looked for him at all, hurt him.

Blowing out a breath that he was close to being thirty years old and he and his brother still couldn’t have an adult conversation without either ending up in a fight or hurling insults that were only meant to hurt and shut down the conversation before it could begin.

Sam had almost convinced himself that when he got back to the motel he and Dean were settling this when he heard his phone ring. Recognizing his brother’s ringtone, he nearly ignored it but knew that would be childish. Especially if Dean was calling for something important.

“Yeah?” he couldn’t quite dispel the still angry tone as he answered it while debating on what else he was buying to make this trip worth it when something on the other end caught his attention. “Dean?”

“Hey, kiddo,” Dean’s greeting sounded off to Sam but he was willing to put that to the fight they’d had earlier or if his brother had been drinking all morning. “Where you at?”

Looking around the store as if Dean could see it through the phone, Sam pushed the cart toward the front of the store while trying to place what was bothering him about this call. “Store, like I told you I’d be,” he rolled his eyes in a way he knew annoyed his brother. “You want something in particular from here or…”

There was a pause then a disturbance over the line or…a hiss of pain before Dean came back on the phone. “Yeah, actually I do…want something,” he admitted, coughing as if clearing his throat or…covering something else. “I…don’t want you to come back here.”

“Come again?” those words had stunned Sam so much that he didn’t even notice when he reverted to using one of his brother’s phrases. It was taking all his energy to shove back the building panic attack.

Sam had known he and Dean’s fights were getting more serious and the tension between them was nearly thick enough to use a knife on but he hadn’t actually ever considered hearing those words from his brother again and once again it was like he’d let Lucifer out of the cage all over again and Dean thought they’d be better off hunting alone.

“Dean…look, I know you’re pissed at me because I didn’t…look for you but…” he’d let go of the cart to lean against a shelf and was glad that this part of the store didn’t seem so busy since he was very close to freaking out.

“You wanted normal, Sam. You…had that before with… _Lenore_ until I pulled you back. Now’s your chance to have it all: girl, dog, house with a white picket fence, _doctor’s_ office,” Dean cut him off quickly as if he didn’t want to give Sam a chance to change his mind…or ask too many questions.

“Huh?” Sam was halfway certain his brother was drunk or something because he wasn’t making sense since he knew damn good and well that Dean remembered Jessica’s name and he wouldn’t get her mixed up with… “Shit,” he breathed, no longer concerned with the cart filled with supplies and groceries as he started to walk toward the front door while trying to figure out what to do.

He was at least two hours away from Saundersville and Dean was clearly in trouble or at least he hoped that this is what was happening.

“Dean? What’s happening?” he asked, trying to sound calm and closing his eyes as this time he heard the soft but audible extra sounds behind his brother’s breathing and voice as Dean kept talking over him.

“Hey, before I let you get back to nice and normal…you remember that werewolf Dad killed in Minnesota about seven years ago?” Dean sounded like he was being normal but only someone who had grown up with him would have heard it and understood the edge to his tone, the undercurrent of fear but more, Sam heard the strain that it was taking to force Sam to stay away. “Damn, the _fangs_ on that thing when it tried to make you lunch. Shot that bastard right in the head with the _Colt_.

“That was almost as good as that time in that little town outside of _Shreveport_ when you were small and _Ben_ and I ganked that…forget what it was. It was all _teeth and pissed off_. So much _blood_ ,” the chuckle was low but then Dean’s voice turned low and Sam was now running through the large market to get outside to the Impala. “Good times.”

Trying to make sense of the little things he knew his brother was trying to drop without seeming obvious because it was clear to Sam that Dean was not alone in their room. It was also clear that his brother was fighting to keep the pain out of his voice which meant he’d been hurt by whatever it was that had jumped him.

“Dean, I’m on my way back,” he pulled the keys out while trying to split his attention between the phone and finding where he’d parked the damn car when it felt like Sam’s legs were moving in quicksand at sharp inhale of breath. “Dean? Did you hear me? I’m…”

“No. No, you’re not, baby boy,” Dean again cut him off but this time it was the use of a nickname that Sam knew it had to have been years since anyone, much less his brother, had called him, that slowed him down. “You’re staying away from me because I’m tired of dragging your ass around with me. Keep the car. It’s getting…too old or you can junk it but we’re done.

“You and me, little brother, it’s over and done,” he coughed again and if Sam hadn’t already been certain his brother was warning him away the bit about the Impala had just assured him that everything coming out of Dean’s mouth were lies and he was just trying to push Sam away to keep him out of whatever shit had come down after he’d left.

A small piece of Sam feared that whoever it was could listen in on them and had to close his eyes while resting his head on the roof of the Impala. “Dean, don’t do this,” he knew it would sound like he meant for his brother to change his mind but Sam was also meaning for his brother not to do anything stupid until he got to him. “Please…”

“You wanted me gone, Sam so I’ll…be gone,” Dean seemed to pause before speaking again, this time voice dropping and sounded huskier than normal as he seemed to be thinking of what he wanted to say before it sounded like something striking flesh and he hissed. “Hey, Sam…one more thing?”

“What?” Sam was fumbling to unlock the Impala when he heard Dean’s breathing catch and that had his attention because he hardly ever heard his brother sound like this unless… “Dean?”

“I…I’m…proud of you, little brother and…Iloveyou,” the last words were rushed but then the line disconnected and it took all of Sam’s strength not to hurl his phone at the sound of dead air.

Fear, anger, and confusion were all rolling into one as Sam got the car open to slid in, turn the engine over and pull out of the parking lot with a bit more tire burning than Dean would approve of but right then all Sam cared about was getting back to the motel and his brother.

Ignoring the little unintentional jab that Dean still believed that Sam hadn’t cared enough to look for him, he made himself focus on all the other stuff his brother had been rattling off.

Their Dad hadn’t killed a werewolf seven years ago in Minnesota with the Colt. Sam knew the only time he and Dean had been with John Winchester in that state at that timeframe had been when they first encountered…

“Oh, damn,” Sam breathed, foot pressing harder on the gas to make the car go faster because he remembered the night his Dad had shot that vampire in the forehead with the Colt to save Sam.

That memory slowly began to tell Sam what was happening. Fangs, teeth, blood, Lenore’s name had all been Dean’s way of warning Sam what had jumped him and then there was no anger anymore for what he and Dean had been fighting for as Sam realized his brother had been nailed by…

“Vampires,” Sam whispered, slamming the heel of his hand against the steering wheel. “Shit, shit, shit!”

All their machetes and the supply of dead man’s blood were in the trunk of the Impala so by storming off like he had, he’d left his brother alone to be jumped by vampires which pissed Sam off in multiple ways but there were still two things that didn’t make sense to Sam.

He and Dean hadn’t been to Shreveport and they’d never hunted with anyone name Ben so he was at a loss for… “Son of a _bitch_.”

Benny. That was what his brother was trying to say. The vampires that jumped him were pissed off at Benny and must have figured out Dean’s connection to the Cajun vampire and that Benny must be in Shreveport or would that be where they’d take Dean if they were trying to get to Benny or…

Sam had too many questions right then and way too few answers for his liking as he tried his brother’s cell but swore viciously when it went straight to voicemail.

The mention of a doctor’s office also had Sam confused because his brother knew he’d been pre-law in Stanford so either Dean forgot, unlikely, or it was another type of clue.

He didn’t know and didn’t care right then. All Sam wanted was to get back to the tiny Louisiana town and get to the motel to hopefully still find his brother and his attacker…multiple vampires? It would have needed to be because Dean could’ve handled one vampire easily.

Saundersville was small, only about four hundred people and Sam had walked nearly the whole town so a large group of outsiders or even a large group of locals would’ve been hard to miss especially since no matter how hard they tried to blend in…vampires had a way about them that a hunter would pick up and Sam hadn’t felt that in town.

So that meant they were from out of town which left him the question of how in the how did they find out about Dean since it wasn’t like his brother made a habit of announcing to the world that he was BFFs with a vampire.

Sam could narrow the list down to three since Martin was dead. He knew his brother wouldn’t have revealed it to anyone, he hadn’t and as Sam felt his temper surge he swore he’d cut Benny’s head off for selling his brother out to someone even though Dean had made it sound like these sons of bitches were pissed at Benny.

Nothing was making sense to Sam right then since he was still replaying Dean’s voice over in his head and had figured out the parts to ignore and the pieces he needed to listen to but it had been the last three words that were still ringing in his head.

“‘ _Iloveyou_.’”

On the fingers of one hand Sam could count the number of times he’d heard those words from his brother. Oh, he knew Dean loved him…or he usually knew that except for when they were fighting like this, but the actual hearing of those words when he was conscious, alert, not hurt or possibly dying had been few and far between.

It was also how Sam knew his big brother was in trouble bad enough that Dean had his doubts about surviving it because no way would Dean admit those words to him unless he didn’t plan on ever seeing him again.

“Huh-uh, no way you blood seeking freaks,” Sam refused to lose his brother now and not like this, not with Dean thinking what he did.

Dean had survived Hell, he’d survived a year in whatever the hell Purgatory was and so much more through his life but he was not losing his brother to some vampires.

Sam wasn’t even aware that he’d made it back to the motel in about forty-five minutes less than it really should have taken him. All he was aware of was he was pissed off and wanting heads but he knew he needed to calm down or he could get both of them killed…if it wasn’t already too late.

A quick glance around the parking lot of the motel showed that he was pretty much isolated as he popped the trunk to grab a machete and several vials of blood that was lethal to a vampire before taking a longer look at the outside of their room.

It basically looked the same as when he’d left it this morning except Sam had been trained by an ex-Marine and by Dean and knew how to pick up the subtle shifts, the differences and as he approached the door he caught a couple.

“Damn,” several drops of blood on the paved lot still seemed sticky and that worried him but it was when his fingers touched the door and it easily swung open that all of Sam’s alarms and senses began screaming.

The wood by the doorjamb had been splintered which told Sam that someone had literally kicked in the door and that was when the smell hit him square in the face.

This part of Louisiana was hot and humid so the smells tended to get more pronounced. As a hunter, Sam knew there were certain smells that he’d never forget and the smell of blood and rotting bodies were just two on that list and the fact that he was smelling both made him sick to his stomach but not for the smell but out of fear.

Easing the door open, Sam kept the blade ready as he went in quickly so his back wasn’t to any one surface until he could see if this was a trap or not when he gagged at the sight that met his sharpening gaze as it scanned the now apparently empty motel room.

Both beds had been turned over, the small table and chairs had been broken while the dresser and bedside table were across the room.

A fight had happened and Sam could feel a shaky smile form as he realized his brother hadn’t gone down without a fight but it was the amount of blood smeared all over the floor, the bed and toward the closed bathroom door that brought back the panic.

“Dean,” he whispered, feeling his legs shake as it became clear that the vampires that cleared out but what had been their purpose and where the hell was his brother.

Vampires didn’t usually take prisoners or if they did, they didn’t stay alive for long but if they were using Dean as bait was it bait for Sam or bait for…

Sam had to grit his teeth because this was somehow Benny’s fault and he’d see the vampire live long enough to pay for getting his brother hurt _before_ he cut his damn head off when something from the bathroom made him look toward the closed door.

They never kept the door closed usually and as Sam touched the blood on the carpet, yeah they wouldn’t be getting the deposit back on this room, he felt his breath stop, catch, then go ragged as he grabbed the machete before lunging for the door.

“Dean?” using his shoulder to open the hard to open door, Sam nearly fell back out at the overwhelming stench of blood as one look showed him more fight damage, more blood and a familiar denim jacket. “No…no…no… Dean!”

** Four Hours Earlier: **

Stretched out on his bed to brood since Dean Winchester did not sulk and especially not over those damn hurt puppy dog eyes his little brother could still use to his full advantage but it was hard to ignore them or his own shock when he realized that he’d allowed himself to get so out of control that he’d had a blade at Sam’s throat.

Dean hated the fights between them again. He’d sworn that after getting Sam’s soul back that he wasn’t allowing anything or anyone to come between them and here he was, allowing his own bitterness and Sam’s…well, he wasn’t sure what the hell was Sam’s problem but he was letting crap between them again.

He knew he was still pissed that Sam hadn’t bothered to look for him but it was something in the way Sam’s face twitched whenever he tossed that jab in that was starting to bother him because usually that twitch meant his little brother was keeping something from him.

Then there was Sam’s unreasonable hate toward Benny and Dean meant unreasonable because he hadn’t seen his brother hate anyone but Lilith with this degree of malice and fury and it still wasn’t making sense to him because seven years ago Sam had been pleading Lenore’s case up one side and down the other to keep Dean from killing her or her nest.

So, he knew it couldn’t be the simple fact that Benny was a vampire because that argument could be nulled if Dean threw the Lenore card on the table and with the vampire issue nulled that left him back at square one to explain his brother’s hate toward the man/vampire who had helped Dean get out of Purgatory when Sam was too busy…

“Stop beating a dead horse as Bobby would say, Dean,” he told himself but it still hurt him that no matter what they promised each other about no more stunts to save the other Sam hadn’t even bothered to try to find him.

Oh, if he wanted to be the bigger man he could accept that Sam had just been healing from having his brains scrambled and found himself literally alone for the first time in his life.

Dean might have shrugged it off then if Sam had said that he looked for a few months and then gave up but knowing the kid he raised, the kid he went to hell for hadn’t even tried…well, that hurt a bit more than he was ready to forgive and when Dean was hurt…he hurt back.

This morning’s fight had basically been just that. It had been finding a way to hurt his brother before he admitted how much he was hurting because between dealing with that pain to the raw edge of post-Purgatory living it was becoming too much for the elder Winchester.

He considered calling Sam when his phone took off ringing and he groaned. “Garth,” the greeting was short and to the point, which he hoped the other hunter would keep the conversation. “What’s up?”

“Dean…where’s Sam?” the skinnier hunter asked, sounding oddly subdued compared to his usual self. “He with you?”

“He went shopping,” Dean replied, not bothering to mention it had been his brother’s way to get out to calm down. “He should have his phone on him so call…”

“I did, he must be out of range,” Garth seemed hesitate before coming to a decision. “Look, just tell him to watch his back.”

Staring up at the ceiling, there was something prickling the back of Dean’s neck when he sat up. “Watch his back?” he repeated, frowning. “I watch Sam’s back,” again he neglected to add usually to that but guessed by the small snort that Garth wasn’t sure how that was going. “Why would he have to watch his back anyway? He’s been homebound for a year so…”

“Huh? Well, I know Sam dropped off the grid for ten months but it was whatever the hell happened between him and Morrison that did that,” Garth practically spit the name like a curse as he changed tones to one that meant he had cocked his head to the side and was giving Dean that pointed little stare like he did at times when curious.

“Sam was looking for you from what I can tell when he ran up against Morrison and some of his pals and all I know is a few hunters say something happened between him and Sam, some older guy got involved and Sam vanished until I saw him with you,” Garth sounded like he didn’t know more but could put it together. “Anyway, some friends say Morrison’s back in the game and making noise about Sam so tell him to watch his ass.”

Dean stared at the phone while considering this. The name rang all sorts of bells with him since while he and Sam hardly ever encountered other hunters there were a few from his youth that he remembered well enough to have them listed in two categories: safe and unsafe.

Either they were safe for Sam to be around or they weren’t and as Dean recalled Shane Morrison had been close to the top of his ‘unsafe for little brother’ list and that was without all the rumors still out there about Sam, the demon blood and their part in the near Apocalypse.

Filing the warning aside until he could ask Sam about it, Dean was locked in on the other thing that Garth had mentioned.

Sam had vanished ten months after Dean got locked in Purgatory which left him two months of time unaccounted for and if he’d been looking for him like Garth suggested then why the hell hadn’t he said that any of the times when Dean had accused him of not looking, of not being a good brother or…

“ _Sonuvabitch_!” too caught up in his own thoughts, Dean hadn’t sensed anything wrong until the sound of the front door being kicked in had him whirling and going for his gun where it laid on his bed only to be grabbed and tossed literally across the room. “Damn it!”

Landing hard, Dean felt the sharp spear of pain shoot up his shoulder as he hit the floor and was immediately rolling to his feet with the knife pulled when he caught sight of five young guys, all of varying builds but with the same long hair and leather look.

“Biker convention go wrong?” he asked, tightening his grip on the blade and just rocking back on the balls of his feet to wait. “Sorry, but you’ve got the wrong room. I’m not looking for company.”

The smaller of the men made a hissing sound that put Dean’s back up because he recognized the sound and also the way the hairs on his arms would raise any time he was even close to a goddamn…

“Vampires?” he groaned, avoiding the lunge that had been too cocky to grab a handful of hair and slashing the blade across the thing’s throat to get as deep a cut as he manage since he knew this blade wouldn’t take a head but the blade he had under his bed would. “Give me a break! We’re hunting witches.”

Seeing the way the other vampires were eyeing their thrashing friend told Dean that these were all somewhat knew vampires. They’d fed already but were still new enough that fresh blood in large amounts would send them into a frenzy.

At the first movement of another one towards the bleeding vamp on the floor, Dean was breaking for his bed. His plan to grab for the blade he kept under there as a precaution wouldn’t worked until he was slammed into the bed and tossed to the floor again but this time he came up swinging, the large blade from Purgatory taking off two heads before the other vampire realized what was happening.

“Wrong day to start this crap with me, asshole,” he snapped, preparing to slice again when something hit him from the side and both he and the bedside table crashed through the table set his a groan. “What the…ackk…”

A strong hand gripped his throat as he was pulled up and slammed bodily into the wall. “Now, that’s no way to greet old friends, boy.”

The voice was heavy in Dean’s head as he struggled against the grip but when he began to hear his heart pounding in his ears he had a dark thought that he wouldn’t be getting out of this one.

“See, we know who you are, boy and I know what you are so before I use you as bait or…food, you’re gonna your brother and make sure he don’t come barging in where he’d not wanted…unless of course, you’d like to watch your little brother turned into my kind.”

Memories of the pain, the bloodlust, the desire curling in him during that time of his life that Dean would rather forget shot to the surface and no matter what else he’d be dead before he let these sons of bitches turn his brother.

“I didn’t think so,” the hand released him and Dean gasped as he laid on the floor, body aching and he was fairly certain his shoulder was out of place though right then his shoulder wasn’t his biggest worry. “Call your brother, hunter. Tell him whatever you want but if he comes here I’ll turn him in front of you.”

Able to see again, he immediately noticed about a dozen vampires now and one of them he recognized from in town. As he took his time to dial Sam, his mind whirled with a dozen ways to do this and only a few of them didn’t run too big of a risk of getting himself killed.

By the time Sam picked up, Dean had his plan in place and could only hope Sam played along but at the first sign on honest panic in the kid’s voice he nearly broke but pushed it down because hurting Sam now was the only way to keep his brother safe as what the vampire in charge was saying began to sink in.

Dean was nearly numb by the time he closed his phone. He’d given Sam what help he could and while a part of him prayed Sam steered clear of this, the other part…the part that raised Sam, knew his brother wouldn’t but he’d at least gotten out the last words that he needed his brother to hear.

The hunter wasn’t stupid. He knew how this would play out and his survival was slim to none right now and the last thing Dean wanted was for Sam to at least know that he still loved him even if he didn’t say it a lot.

Rubbing a hand over his eyes, he shot a defiant look up with a typical Dean Winchester sneer. “Now what, asshole?” he demanded, refusing to show fear as the tall, rangy looking vampire in a well-made suit and with slicked back blond hair smiled with all his teeth showing.

“Now I decide if you’re useful as bait for my old friend or if you’re more good to us as food, Dean,” he replied, evil plain as he grabbed the hunter by the neck to hold him still as his teeth sank in.

Flashes of pain and fear hit him but as strong hands held him down, Dean’s thoughts before an odd darkness washed over him were of what they almost always were. ‘Sammy, be careful.’

 

**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some warning for language and a little violence but nothing too serious. 
> 
> I’ve never really done Benny before so please bear with me because trying to capture his voice isn’t easy.

** Chapter Two **

****

****

** Saundserville, LA: Present: **

It took what seemed like an eternity for Sam Winchester to move once he could get past the horrid stench coming out of the bathroom of the motel room he and his older brother had shared.

The hunter’s nerves had been on edge ever since getting the phone call from Dean a little under two hours ago that had originally been meant to tell Sam not to come back because all of their fighting had finally done what not even the Apocalypse or Ruby could do and broke the bond that was between them.

At first Sam had been close to panic because only one time did Dean tell him to go or that they’d be better off apart and Sam still had the physical and emotional scars from that time. Then he began to slowly understand that his brother wasn’t forcing his away as much as he was trying to warn him not to come back.

Sam had suspected vampires had jumped his brother but it wasn’t until he got back to the motel and saw the damage that the hunch began to get stronger because very few supernatural bad guys could get the jump on his brother, especially with as hyper as Dean had been lately, and not go down the hard way.

A quick look told him that it had to have been multiple vampires but now as he stared at the blood covering the bathroom and the blood soaked denim jacket that Sam immediately recognized as Dean’s the younger Winchester was almost scared to move.

He and Dean had been fighting a lot since his brother got back from Purgatory and the fight this morning was the worst one but Sam knew that no matter how much or how bad they fought or bickered that his big brother was still nearly invincible in his eyes and the thought of what was under that jacket nearly forced him out of the bathroom.

“No…Dean didn’t raise a coward and you’re not one,” Sam admonished himself, watching his step on the now slippery floor to reach down to grip the collar of the jacket to pull and back and felt a wave of both nausea and sick relief fill him…before the nausea won out and he dropped to the toilet to throw up.

Relieved that it wasn’t his brother’s body in the tub covered by the jacket gave Sam a sense of relief until the thought that Dean had been taken by the vampires to who knew where, to have who knew what done to him made a surge of temper spike and just like that Sam’s hunter self was back in control.

Only giving a small thought to how the hell he was going to clean this up before the motel manager called the cops, Sam was focused on the three dead and beheaded vampires in the tub where someone, the other vamps perhaps, had tossed them.

There was no doubt that they’d been left as a clear message to someone but since Sam knew he wasn’t supposed to be here then that left him with the question of who they’d be a message to and why when he caught sight of something sticking out of the mouth of one of the vampires.

“Yeah, no semblance in this message,” Sam muttered, wincing as he pulled the paper out with a disgusted look that soon turned into a pure bitch face. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Getting away from the smell in the bathroom, not that the bedroom was any cleaner, Sam slid one of the beds back up so he could sit down as he tried to decipher the note but it only took him a matter of minutes to understand that whoever had left this note had not left it for him and once again he wanted to snarl.

“Son of a bitch!” he nearly gave the bed a kick as he swore, not realizing how much like Dean he sounded right then when something on the floor caught his attention and soon Sam was on his knees without regard to getting even more blood on his jeans to pick up the black band with shaking fingers.

Sam recognized it as soon as he touched it. Both he and his brother once had the black bands and while he was certain that Dean still had his somewhere, Sam hadn’t seen his since the day he placed it in his brother’s pocket as he buried him after the damn hellhounds had ripped Dean to pieces.

He’d often wondered if Dean still had it or if he’d gotten rid of it like he had the amulet during that time during the Apocalypse and he lost faith in them but as Sam’s fingers ran over the band now he felt his chest tighten when he understood that this was his band, not Dean’s, because Sam knew that his band had a worn spot just above the knot from where he’d always rub his fingers over it when agitated.

Shocked at finding it lying on the floor, it slowly made Sam weaker because it told him that Dean would’ve had this on him when he was jumped and either he dropped it during the initial assault or…he dropped it after and before he was taken away.

“Damn it, Dean,” understanding that his brother had done this in a way to keep him safe gave Sam a little piece of security that he and his brother still had a shot at repairing this damage…if he could find Dean before he outlived his purpose and that was it hit him that he had no idea how to do this.

Sam was stuck in a small town with no idea who had his brother or where they’d taken him, much less how he’d get him back when he couldn’t even read the one damn clue he did have and that made his inner hatred build because he did not want to have to what it was fairly clear to him that he needed to.

If Dean’s innocently dropped clues hadn’t already told him this whole mess involved Benny somehow then the damn note he found in a type of French that Sam couldn’t translate in the time he had.

Plus there was also the interesting symbol scrawled on the motel wall in blood, he suspected it was probably his brother’s blood, which just screamed message.

In his life Sam had worked with some weird things and that included the damn demon bitch that had gotten him in so much trouble to begin with but he did not want to work with the vampire that his brother seemed so loyal to.

Sam hated Benny with every ounce of passion that he had and every time he heard the man refer to Dean as ‘brother’ he had to choke back the urge to either stake him or cut his head off.

That was another thing that Dean didn’t seem to notice or maybe he didn’t care by this point but Sam did care that someone else was calling _his_ brother that and he hated how it made him feel.

Though right then he also knew that if he let his pride and emotions run this then he stood a good chance of losing Dean because if he didn’t get help then he’d never find his brother and that wasn’t something Sam was willing to risk on a little…no, he wasn’t going down to that thought yet.

“Please still work,” picking us the dropped cellphone, Sam scrolled through the list of stored numbers and began to feel those little pricks of panic coming again when he couldn’t find the number for Dean’s vampire friend. “No, no…c’mon, you never delete anyone from these things,” he spoke to the phone as if speaking to his missing brother.

Pacing as he scrolled back through the very short list of names on the phone, Sam felt like swearing and crying at the same time because he was stunned that his brother had actually deleted Benny’s number after he’d called him that last time to tell him that he couldn’t help him anymore.

Sam knew that had been a hard choice for Dean to make because once Dean Winchester felt loyalty to someone it took a lot for him to walk away and the younger man held no delusions that he’d been the reason for that choice.

He’d chosen not to go back to Texas and so Dean had made the choice between him and Benny, the one that Sam had never had the guts to actually voice aloud to this brother…and now he was silently kicking them both because without that number he couldn’t call…

“Wait, he called him so that means the number will be in the call history,” Sam was 100% certain that his non-tech brother would never had thought to erase the memory on the phone and quickly called that log up to scroll through it until he finally came to one that he could only hope was right because it was the only ‘B.L.’ in the recent log.

Rolling his eyes that not only had his older brother actually deleted his older calls but didn’t put full names for anyone except for him, Sam hesitated briefly before hitting the number then touching send and heard the dial tone.

Forcing a deep breath into his lungs before letting it out slowly, Sam tried to calm down but his emotions were jumping all over the place between fear for Dean’s safety, anger towards himself for leaving the motel this morning, hate for the damn vampires who grabbed his brother and concern for what he’d do if the call wasn’t answered.

Dean had shrugged off his question about how Benny had taken his decision to sever ties but Sam wasn’t sure how much his brother had downplayed the actual event and if it had gone bad then perhaps Benny wouldn’t pick up the call.

As the phone rang for the third time and his level of nervousness notched up, Sam felt something click inside him as soon as he heard the ring cut off and the smooth tone of whiskey and honey with a Cajun accent came over the phone.

“Hey, what’s up, brother? Didn’t expect to hear from you this soon.”

Clenching his fingers around the bracelet to remind himself that he was doing this for Dean, Sam swallowed the curse that wanted to come every time he heard the vampire call Dean ‘brother’ and focused on the phone. “This isn’t Dean.”

Dead air came on the phone as Benny either took this news in or disconnected but after a couple heartbeats he made a soft sound as if clearing his throat before speaking. “Sam.”

Benny Lafitte would know the voice of Dean’s little brother anywhere and it wasn’t even because it still held that same dark mistrust it had the first night they’d met face to face.

No, Benny knew he’d know that voice because it actually sounded like he thought it would from all the times Dean had spoken of his brother while they’d been fighting to get out of Purgatory and because it also sounded a lot like Dean did when the boy hadn’t been paying attention to keep the hard as ass hunter shell up.

Recognizing Sam’s voice and accepting that he was on Dean’s phone calling him were different matters to the vampire though as he pulled his truck over to the side of the back road he’d been driving on. “What’s wrong?” he asked straight out because for Sam to call him after Dean had made the choice to sever ties then he was nearly 99.9% certain that something had to be wrong. “Where’s Dean…or if this just between us?”

Benny could hear the ragged way Sam was breathing but couldn’t decide if it was temper or something else while he flipped open the cooler he kept on the front seat with him to take out a bag of blood. “You’re brother worked real hard to keep us apart the last time so…”

“Dean’s been grabbed by vampires,” Sam cut in finally, hating to even voice that aloud but also hating that the vampire knew about Dean’s ploy to send Sam off on some fake errand of mercy. “I think they’re pissed off at you and planning to use him or something.”

“What?” no longer interested in the blood, Benny’s full attention was on the phone and the hunter on the other end. “What makes you think vampires have Dean or that they’re after me?”

This didn’t make sense to Benny because even though he knew the odds were good that some vampires from his life before Purgatory might still exist, none of them should’ve known about his friendship with Dean. “You see ‘em or…”

“I wasn’t here when he was jumped,” Sam sounded raw as he got that out through gritted teeth and the vampire had a hunch that things still weren’t so great with the Winchester brothers. “He called me. He tried to make it seem like he was kicking me to the curb but then he began dropping little clues. Enough that after he cut off that I figured it out and…the decapitated vampires in the bathtub are also a pretty good clue.

“But there’s a note here in some kind of French and a symbol drawn in blood on the wall that…what the hell did you just say?” Sam demanded as he jerked the phone away from his ear at the harsh oath in some tongue that rang a bell from his childhood.

“Where you boys at?” Benny countered, jerking his truck back into gear to go back to driving.

The vampire had been hoping Sam was wrong about the vampires or that it might be some random group but the note and the symbol…he suspected even without seeing them that this was even worse than Sam thought it was.

“Some little place in the bayou called Saundersville, Louisiana,” Sam replied, ears picking up the change in tone from casual and wary to more wary and not so casual. “Supposed to be witches but…”

“Ain’t been no witches down in Saundersville in more than a hundred years, Sam,” Benny shook his head, trying to figure out where he was in comparison to where he needed to be. “Why you callin’ me, Sam?” he finally asked, not liking the implications of this but also not so eager to put his head that close to an angry Sam Winchester. “Accordin’ to Dean, you boys been hunting my kind for a lotta years so…”

“If I had any other choice, I wouldn’t give you the time of day much less call you for help but…” once again Sam could picture his brother, he took in the blood around the room and pushed back his own feelings. “…but I don’t know where they are or where they took him.

“I can’t read this damn note and by the time I find someone who can it may be too late for him so…” he bit his lip and made a choice. “Dean said you were his friend. He said he depended on you down there. I can’t find him on my own this time and if these vamps are after you…are you still friend enough that he can count on you now or will you save your own damn skin and leave my brother to rot?” he asked firmly, hoping his voice sounded strong like Dean’s often did and not the near pleading tone he suspected he was close to.

“Huh. Good one,” Benny nodded, wondering if the boy realized how much like his brother he truly sounded like right then. “I’m a couple hours away from you.”

Realizing that was the vampire’s way of saying he’d come, Sam felt both relieved and anxious. “A couple things Dean said didn’t make sense so I’ll…”

“You sit tight and wait for me,” Benny cut in, voice still in that whiskey drawl but now it held an undertone of steel. “Good chance that someone in that town is working for whoever grab Dean and if he went to that much trouble to try to keep you out of this then it won’t do him any good if you go and get yourself killed or worse.”

As the silence on the other end grew, Benny sighed. Here was another way the Winchesters were similar because it appeared as if Sam shared his big brother’s dislike of being told what to do or maybe it was he just disliked being told what to do by a vampire.

But Benny had a promise to keep and now that promise included keeping his friend’s little brother from jumping into the deep end of a very hot frying pan and if telling him wouldn’t work then Benny would resort to using the same method he originally used on Dean: Logic and guilt.

“Sam, if you go out and get grabbed then any chance Dean has of fighting this is gone because we both know what he’d do to keep you safe, right?” Benny’s lips curled in a smile when he heard the soft oath. “Figured you’d agree. Sit tight and I’ll get be there.”

Hanging up before the boy could think of another issue, Benny unclenched his fingers when he heard the plastic crack a little.

He hadn’t been expecting this and still held out hope that the situation wasn’t as bad as he feared it was because was one thing to know he’d left Dean open to possible attacks by old rivals looking for payback but it was quite another if he ended up having to tell Sam that rescuing his brother was just the first half of a very big battle.

Back in the motel, Sam stared at the phone before stashing it in his jacket with his own but couldn’t bring himself to move off the bed.

The hunter in him said that he needed to try to clean up what he could, to begin plotting a cover story or at the very least have a slight working plan for what he’d do or say when Benny arrived because working with a vampire still wasn’t high on his list of things to do but he couldn’t do it.

Slipping the bracelet back onto his own wrist so he wouldn’t lose it, images of when his teenage older brother first handed it to him flooded back and it was all Sam could do to shut those gates before too much straining emotion came through.

This wasn’t the first time Sam would’ve been alone or that he’d hunted alone but the simple fact was that any time he did things usually turned out worse…for both of them but this one felt too much like right after both Hell and Purgatory.

The loss, the confusion, the fear since Sam knew memories of that last year were still too near the surface and wished he could just tell his brother the truth but wasn’t ready for that fallout yet and so he tried to focus on what he knew right then.

Dean’s comment about doctor’s still had Sam in the dark but knew it was vital by the way his brother had stressed it and a part of Sam recalled the tiny clinic at the beginning of town, wondering if that wouldn’t be a place to start looking while he waited for Benny to show up to see what else he knew.

“I’m going to fix this, Dean,” he whispered to the room, refusing to think how much of this blood might belong to his brother as he began to try to clean up what he could if only to try to clear the air of the stench that was slowly making him sick. “Just hang on.”

** Elsewhere: **

Sharp searing pain all over his body woke Dean Winchester. Not that his pain filled dark dreams were any better but at least the pain was only on the outside and not searing through his veins as well.

Briefly disoriented, a part of Dean shot back to Purgatory but then he shook that off and it was as his body literally shook that he began to remember and began to fight down the panic.

Dean had always hated to be tied in anyway because being restrained brought back bad memories. It also meant he was powerless and he hated being powerless in any way, especially if it meant he couldn’t protect his brother.

The casual sloppy ropes that most attackers thought were good Dean had been slipping out of since he was a kid but by the first move of his wrists, realizing that not only were they tied tightly at the small of his back but also the bastards had tied his thumbs together as well caused his worry to notch up another level.

The hunter couldn’t see which he hoped just meant he was blindfolded and nothing else more serious though right then he guessed he should be glad he wasn’t feeling a mouthful of extra teeth since he vividly recalled the damn vampires jumping him at the motel.

Not wanting to move too much to draw attention to the fact that he was awake, a sudden pain in his thigh made him jerk only to fully realize he was naked from the waist up and he was also chained in addition to the heavy ropes binding his wrists and arms but also his legs and ankles.

“You’re a hunter. You didn’t think a couple ropes would be good enough for the infamous Dean Winchester, did you?”

The mocking voice had a velvety smooth tone and an accent that seemed mildly familiar but striking up a conversation with a vampire wasn’t high on Dean’s list of things to do right then.

“You’re wondering why you’re alive or perhaps why I haven’t turned you? Both answers are simple. Because I need you the way you are for the moment.”

A hand, long and smooth, moved up to touch the vein on Dean’s neck and he had to bite his lip against the pain and he realized what he was good for but something still felt off to him. “I…I make a lousy meal,” he gritted, trying to jerk his head away only to feel those same fingers grip his hair to yank it. “Why…not just kill me, asshole?”

“Because that’s too simple,” the lead vampire replied smoothly. “I’ve looked for a very long time for a way to do this and while we’re waiting you can be used for food for my nest or for amusement for me.”

Testing the chains, Dean grew cold as he realized he’d been tied completely so that his ankles were hooked to his wrists with a short piece of chain so that he was basically on his knees and that tripled his unease. “Why blindfold me then?” he needed something if only it was to that little bit because being chained was one thing but not being able to see what was happening or near him had always driven him nuts. “Wouldn’t it be more fun to make me watch as you torture me?”

A low laugh that seemed hauntingly familiar caused a shiver to go up the hunter’s spine before the blindfold was ripped away and he needed to close his eyes against the sudden harsh light of the fires surrounding him.

The fireplace across the massive stone room took up nearly the whole wall but it was the little cage holders on various walls or pillars that screamed B-grade horror movie and Dean might’ve made a snarky comment if his attention hadn’t suddenly been drawn to where he was chained.

Heavily chained and tied was one thing for him to handle but it was the heavy ornate chain looped around his waist and through the chains on his wrists and legs before binding him to the heavy wooden chain that sat on the other end of the room that made him try to fight.

“You can’t fight, boy,” the blonde vampire, who was clearly the leader of this nest told him, seeming amused as he watched the mortal strain before tightening his grip on Dean’s short hair to pull him closer. “My boys wanted to make you a feast, Dean. My options were to cage you, which I will do shortly, or keep you close to me and…” his voice dropped to a smooth honey coated murmur. “I like to keep my toys close to me.”

“Forget it! I don’t roll that way, especially with freaks!” his skin already crawling, Dean’s instinctive reaction was to jerk but could only grit his teeth as the vampire leaned closer to allow his teeth to show fully while gripping Dean’s jaw tightly.

“By the end of this experience you’ll ‘roll’ anyway I choose,’ he replied firmly, taking a deep breath as if smelling and smiling fully. “Though you don’t have to worry in that regards because while more than a few of my females find you attractive and I could certainly let them play with you once your body adjusts to the drugs, that wasn’t quite the fate I had in mind…yet.”

Seeing the concern and confusion in his prisoner’s green eyes, the vampire waved a hand. “Look around you, Dean. I have more than one food source for my little family but you’ll quickly notice a difference in how I control both the prisoners and my people. You’re a bit more hardcore so it’s taking longer to have full effect in you.”

“What?” Dean managed to look around now to see several men and woman, human obviously, being fed upon or used in other ways around the room but he then took in the glassy eyes, the sluggish movements of the humans and the near hype actions of the vamps and felt sick. “Drugs? You’re using some form of drug to control the humans and…?”

“I was a chemist before I…was turned and afterward I decided to test some various drugs on my nest. The drugs keep the bloodlust down, keeps them mine and it’s always interesting to watch how the drugs respond in the mortals I choose,” he held up a needle to show Dean before inserting it into the hunters arm.

“I don’t want you a mindless slave for bloodletting so I’m using another type on you. It will sap your will so maybe I won’t have to keep you tied like this all the time and it may affect your thought functions as it goes on but the ultimate fun will happen when I stop giving it to you and you’re begging to do anything just for the drug,” he laughed at the hate in Dean’s eyes before biting down on his shoulder for a small taste. “Blood mixed with my drugs taste all the sweeter to my kind…or perhaps Benny didn’t mention that to you?”

Dean felt the burning in his veins pick up and now understood that it was the drug settling in and he wanted to rip this thing’s head off.

He could fight a lot of crap but he realized that drugs were the worst because he had no way of knowing how they’d affect him or if he could fight it which could in the end place his brother in danger, like it had once before.

“Who…who are you?” he gasped, feeling the urge to throw up as the vampire eased back to run a tongue over the bit marks in his shoulder. “What’s…your beef with…Benny?”

“My name is Lucien, Dean and as for what my ‘beef’ is with your so-called ‘friend’ let’s just say that he and I go way back,” he picked up another needle of a different kind to consider before gripping Dean to keep him still as he tried to fight on instinct as it slid into the skin on his neck. “You know how big a pain in the ass brothers can be so we have that in common. We also have something else in common.”

Wanting to fight, wanting to try to escape before this got even worse, Dean thought of his brother but still prayed that Sam steered clear of this because if he was drugged it was too easy to hurt and he wanted Sam safe, especially from himself.

Wanting those things and being able to get them were different matters as he felt his head getting fuzzy, unable to think except for a sinking feeling in his gut as shining eyes seemed to bore into his own as the vampire watched him fall under the drugs effects.

“Both of our brothers let us be turned into vampires but at least you were able to return to…normal,” he sneered as he snapped his fingers to a smaller, dirty looking vampire to come closer. “Emil, feed from him. I think it’s time I place a call to my own beloved brother…who should just be getting to your little one, Dean.”

Dean’s eyes jerked as something began to gel but before he could fully figure it out, he screamed as teeth sank in to his side and wished either for death or unconsciousness but suspected that he’d be getting neither anytime soon.

“S…Sammy,” he whispered tightly, refusing to let these sons of bitches close to his brother no matter what he had to let happen as it began to sink in what was being said.

** Motel in Saundersville, LA: **

Sam had just finished most of the excess blood off the walls and was debating on just setting the room on fire when he was done to cover it up when he felt the change in the air and sighed.

“Been one long, Doc?” he asked over his shoulder without looking because he recognized the perfume from the first time he and Dean had met with the town’s only doctor/medical examiner.

“Probably longer than you’ve been alive,” Dr. Stan Jessup replied as he closed the door to the motel room to look around. “Not going to get the deposit back on this room, son.”

It really grated on Sam’s nerves when people used those terms since normally only those closest to him ever were allowed to call him names like that and never a vampire.

“Didn’t plan on it actually,” Sam turned slowly, not showing a weapon in either hand as he looked at the black haired man who was watching him. “Where’s my brother?”

Jessup shook his head with a small smile, not bothering with the teeth thing since he didn’t often bring them out for simple jobs like this. “Dead as far as you’re concerned, Sam,” he replied, taking a step closer to the hunter but made certain to not get too close. “You were supposed to stay out of this. Gonna be real painful on your big brother to know you didn’t listen to him.”

“Dean’s used to me disappointing him so I doubt if he’d give a damn,” Sam shifted slightly so when he moved his one hand it was obvious. “Guess the last thing I couldn’t figure out makes sense now,” he was kicking himself for not sensing it but then he supposed he could put it off to the way they’d been fighting lately.

Now Sam’s distraction may get his brother killed. “You the one who sold him out to…whoever?” he demanded, offering a scowl at the smile. “How’d the hell you bastards even know to target Dean?”

“The how isn’t really important at the moment except that my maker has his ways and I merely gave him a heads up when you boys walked in my door,” Jessup shook his head then moved with a speed that Sam’s exhaustion and distractions had caused him to forget vampires had to pin the hunter against the wall across from the door. “You won’t need this.”

Keeping Sam pinned, the doctor reached down to take the vial of dead man’s blood out of Sam’s hand that he’d just been removing to toss it to the side. “The boss didn’t say you couldn’t be turned and I wonder if your big brother would see the…irony in that,” he commented while taking a small bite on his own wrist to let it bleed while seeing the mild fear flare in the younger Winchester’s eyes. “You remember what it was like for Dean when you let him be turned?”

“How…how do you know about that?” Sam used his full strength to try to get free but gasped when the arm pressed over his chest tightened and he thought he heard something crack. “You guys got your own…social site to share gossip?”

“That’s cute but I thought your big brother was the smart ass?” Jessup countered, moving his arm up so it could press against the hunter’s throat while letting his bleeding wrist hang over Sam’s face so the blood dropped. “Only take a few drops to make you less than human, boy.”

Sam jerked his head away from the dropping blood before resorting to his last course of action; slamming his forehead forward to strike the vampire doctor in the face only to gag when the arm pressed harder with a harsh oath.

“I should rip your throat out for that,” Jessup snarled, hating to bleed his own blood as he turned to hurl Sam hard across the room and toward the door. “In fact, I might just do that since I figure your brother is still probably expecting you to ride to the rescue so we can’t have that.”

Struggling to bring air in since both his throat and chest were sure to be bruised, Sam went to roll to his feet while reaching for the machete he’d brought in earlier to grunt as a well-polished shoe slammed into his stomach.

“Maybe I’ll film it so the boss can let your brother watch as I kill you slowly,” Jessup knelt down to pin Sam to the floor while debating between killing him or turning him.

“Who…who’s your boss?” Sam wanted to know that at least regardless of what was going to happen as he struggled against the weight pinning him and the way his head was starting to spin when he felt something warm touch his face and tried to buck the vampire off of him before any blood could get into his mouth but gasped at the feel of fingers tightening around his throat again. “Who…’s…got…my…”

“That probably be my brother.”

 

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So…yet another of those darn cliffeys. Kind of easy to probably guess who just showed up or maybe not since who knows what kind of new loop I’ll toss in, lol. Dean’s in a world of trouble and he needs help but will just rescuing him be enough? Update soon.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam and Benny have to co-exist in order to help Dean but with Sam's dislike and a part of his part swiftly closing in, will they be able and when it comes down to it, what will Benny do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Mild language and some minor violence but nothing too bad.

** Chapter Three **

****

“That probably be my brother.”

The unexpected voice from the now open door had Doctor/vampire Stan Jessup whirling but he’d only started to move when he was physically yanked away from the unmoving body on the floor and shoved into the wall.

“Who…” he gasped as a hand with strength rivaling his own began to crush his windpipe.

“Not a guy you want to piss off right now,” Benny growled low in his ear before tossing a look over his shoulder, frowning at the blood he could see and smell and also at the fact that Sam still hadn’t move. “You alright down there, Sam?” he called casually, raising his tone at the silence. “You get any of his blood in you?”

Finally able to breathe though his throat felt like crap, Sam was able to make a thumbs up gesture to the first question and slowly shake his head to the second while lifting a hand to wipe any blood from his cheek to make certain.

Watching Sam for another second, Benny returned his attention to the struggling vampire before giving a show of his own teeth to give the guy an idea of who or what he was. “You know me?” he demanded crossly, sensing Sam beginning to move and not pleased to have his back to the younger hunter but also wanting to keep the vampire away from him. “Better question, you know where Dean’s at?”

“Where you’ll never find…ack!” Jessup didn’t finish the sentence as he gasped as the needle poked in his neck and he stared up at Benny in shock.

“That’s what you think,” stepping back to let the body drop, Benny smiled a little. “Still going for the blade even though I did just technically save your life, Sam?”

Sam’s eyes had cleared and he quickly realized that Benny had done just that but he was also more than a little pissed off and confused all at once. “You just killed the only lead we had and what the hell did you mean when you came in?”

“He didn’t know anything to help us find Dean,” Benny walked back over to close the door since he didn’t want any locals wondering by to get a look at this room. “Luc isn’t stupid enough to give his real whereabouts to some local lackey and if he did, we wouldn’t have gotten it out of this moron because he’s not fully from the nest that grabbed Dean.”

More than a little confused and still trying to breathe while hoping not too many ribs were cracked or that his sternum wasn’t bruised too much, Sam pushed to his feet only to fall back unsteadily before a hand gripped his bicep to keep him from falling.

“Hey, easy there, big boy,” Benny didn’t like how pale his friend’s brother seemed but could shrug that off to any number of things as he was shoved away.

“Don’t touch me,” Sam growled, making his head stop spinning and hating that little smirk on the vampire’s face since he’d missed the look before it while he was trying to stop the room from moving. “You’re damn fault this is happening so got an answer as to why your enemies knew to go after Dean and what did you mean…”

“Not a clue in Hell as to why they picked Dean or how they found out about him,” Benny replied, looking at the symbol on the wall with a look of disgust before eyeing Sam again. “Where’s the note you found?”

Pulling it out of his pocket, Sam held it out. “You know who’s behind this, don’t you?” he asked, certain of this before he watched Benny’s face as he read the note. “You can read this?”

“Old time Cajun. Not very people except those deep in the bayous even know the language anymore, especially like this but…yeah, I can read it and…yeah, I know who did this,” Benny leaned against the wall while tossing his cap aside to run fingers through his hair like he hadn’t done since he was alive. “I was kinda hoping to be wrong but…I’m not.”

He looked up to see Sam’s eyes watching him. “I didn’t tell anyone about Dean, Sam. You boys have enough enemies already without people finding out that your big brother befriended a vampire while in Purgatory. Hell, that even pisses you off,” he gave a slow smile. “You want my help or not?”

“I want my brother back so if that means working with you to find him then that’s what I’ll do,” Sam stepped into the bathroom to wet a rag because he wouldn’t feel clean or safe until he made certain all traces of the vampire blood was off of him. “You screw me over or get Dean killed and all bets are off.”

“Yeah, but you’re the laid back one or so Dean liked to say,” Benny chuckled, wrinkling his nose at the smell from the bathroom. “A little extreme in the message department but then Luc’s never been known for being subtle,” he clucked his tongue while noticing the way Sam held himself and remembered Dean’s actions when they first met. “You trust me, Sam?”

That made Sam want to laugh but instead he offered an eye roll. “You’re a vampire. I’m a hunter. Those two things make trusting you really unlikely but for Dean’s sake…I am,” he tossed the rag and was really beginning to feel anxious to get moving. “The note say anything useful?”

It actually said a great deal but nothing Benny felt safe telling Sam at the moment since the vampire didn’t think the boy would want to hear in detail the threats made against his brother.

“Nah, just usual bad guy bragging,” he shrugged, seeing Sam’s doubt and wondering if the boy knew just how much like Dean he looked right then. “You want the long version or the short one?”

“I want to know who this asshole is and why you said he was your brother,” Sam went around the room to pick up stuff that could be traced back to them while also watching Benny from the corner of his eye. “Real or just someone else you tend to use the word for?”

There was no mistaking the bitterness in Sam’s voice and Benny knew he was on cracked ice already with the younger man but he was also beginning to wonder if Dean really had a clue to why his little brother hated him and he suddenly wasn’t sure it was all the whole vampire thing.

“What Dean tell you about me?” he asked, figuring it be best to find out what Sam knew and it didn’t come as too big a shock when all Sam did was shake his head. “Aside from the vampire and Purgatory thing, he say anything else?”

“My brother doesn’t talk about Purgatory at all except the one time he said he felt pure while down there,” Sam returned, knowing he was bitter and really didn’t want to admit that Benny probably knew Dean better now than Sam did. “All he said about you was that he survived down there because of you, that you helped get him out and…that you’re a better brother to him than I’ve been.”

“Say what?” Benny had to shake his head, certain he’d heard wrong except the pain on Sam’s face as he said it told him that he hadn’t and he groaned, wanting to shake his friend when he found him for saying that to a kid who obviously still looked up to him. “Okay, not going there,” he decided then sighed.

Taking his jacket off to begin to help Sam clean up a bit more, Benny kept his distance from the hunter because while he felt Sam’s dislike for him he also could sense there was something else bothering Dean’s brother aside from having Dean in the hands of vampires.

“Short of it, I got turned a long time ago but that whole story ain’t vital to this because that was what your big brother was helping me fix the night you and I first met,” Benny decided the table was a lost cause. “This is more about a screw up I made right after I got turned.”

Debating, Benny looked at the note again to the symbol still on the wall with another sigh. “When I was human, I had a family. The folks were long gone but I had brothers and a sister. Lucien was the youngest of the lot and always in trouble so…I was the one who took it on myself to watch out for him,” he began slowly.

“By the time Luc was born our Ma was tired and she let him get out of hand but he was smart. He could pick up a book and remember it, he knew all about the types of plants and animals in the bayou but it’s what he did with those things that I tried to temper because my little brother was a goddamn sadist at times,” Benny turned to hand Sam a shirt that had been on the floor and knew by the careful way the younger man took it that it belonged to Dean.

“I didn’t live a good life, Sam. I skated the thin line between legal and illegal to make a living and most of the family left me alone but whenever Luc was in trouble he ran to me because I was the only one who never turned him away…even when I should’ve,” he read the note for the third time before smirking at it. “When I was turned, before I went away…I reacted stupidly and didn’t want to lose my one connection to my family. I also wanted a way to keep an eye on Luc so…”

Sitting down on the edge of the bed, Sam frowned. “You turned your own brother?” this was bothering him a lot because it was bringing back those memories of the time he was soulless but another part was listening to the tale of a big brother trying to look out for an out of control younger brother and he did not want to start those comparisons. “Why the hell would you wish that on…you didn’t know what it would do, did you?”

“Nope, the guy who made me didn’t see fit to share all those secrets then,” Benny walked over to the mini fridge and held up a beer, taking it for himself when Sam shook his head. “I was new, the bloodlust was huge and Luc, as always, had just gotten himself into a heap of trouble. I was looking for a way to maybe calm him down and I thought by turning him, getting him away from home that it would but…it didn’t work like I planned.

“Luc took to bein’ a vampire a lot better and faster than I actually did and instead of distracting him from his little games, it actually made him worse because it wasn’t just the blood he got hooked on but something else,” looking up to see with some surprise that Sam actually appeared to be paying attention to him. “That’s why this is so bad. Him having Dean for any amount of time is not good.”

Fully agreeing with that, Sam snorted. “Being a vampire heightens everything so whatever he was into when he was alive just went up two hundred percent and if he turns my brother…” he closed his eyes, not wanting to go through that again because it was the whole letting his brother get turned into a vampire that still bothered him the most even if it was one of Dean’s taboo topics.

“He won’t turn Dean, Sam and that’s the problem,” Benny didn’t want to drop any more bad news on the kid yet but he also needed Sam to be aware of the risks. “Luc only turns people he can control and even with his methods, he’d never control Dean because man, that brother of yours is too stubborn to be under anyone’s thumb even drugged.”

“What does he want from you then?” Sam asked finally, getting the odd feeling that the vampire still knew more than he was saying but chose to push for that after he got the bigger picture. “The way I took it from Dean’s little clues was this guy was pissed at you so…”

“He hates me,” Benny shrugged, clearly not going to go on when they both heard the phone ringing. “Ain’t me. You got someone calling you?”

Sam pulled Dean’s phone out since he’d recognized the ringtone but frowned at the unfamiliar number. Looking up at Benny, he hit the button to activate the speaker function. “Yeah?”

“Well, it seems you don’t know when to take a hint. Sam, I presume?” Lucien Lafitte smiled as he sat back in his chair to look down, bringing his most current guest back to full consciousness enough to let him know who he was speaking with. “I really did think your big brother did a good job convincing you to stay away but then hunter’s aren’t known for being very smart, are they?”

“You’d be surprised,” Sam’s voice went low and his teeth clenched at the mocking laugh. “Where’s my brother? Let me talk to him.”

“Oh, he’s here with me but I’m afraid talking at the moment is out of the question,” Lucien ran a finger over the gag he’d stuffed in Dean’s mouth while seeing the realization coming in slightly glassy green eyes. “You’re not who I called to talk to though, boy. I knew he’s with you by now so put my brother on the phone before I grow too bored with yours and…”

Taking the phone before Sam could hurl it; Benny placed it on the dresser. “Let Dean go now, ya hear, Luc. He’s got nothin’ to do with this. Your issue’s with me so you let him go.”

“Oh, I might do that once you come here so we can finish this,” Lucien replied easily, adding in a more coy tone of voice. “Though…by then you might not want him back. ‘Fraid he’s gonna look like some poor mutt’s chew toy by the time we’re done with him.”

“Sam!” Benny moved to quickly shove Sam back on the bed when he went to lunge for the phone. “You’re makin’ a bad mistake even worse, Luc,” he warned, shooting a warning look at the hunter to keep calm. “Your problem’s with me, not Dean. Now, you tell me how you even found out about him and where you are but you keep your people away from him or we don’t deal.”

Running his finger down to wipe from blood from Dean’s shoulder, Lucien’s smile grew more malicious as he watched his captive still try to struggle only to have to lean against the side of the chair as whatever he’d been injected with sapped his strength faster with every dose.

“You think I don’t know a thing or two about you, big brother?” he chuckled. “I spent a good many years finding out what I could of your life before you supposedly died and since you’ve been back again. I also made it a point to keep track of that whore you were with before betting turned so want me to spell it out in great detail or just say how much the little bitch screamed before I ripped her heart out after she told me about your hunter friend here?”

“Elizabeth?” Benny’s breath caught as it suddenly sank in with him that there was one other person who knew about Dean. “What did you do, Lucien?” he demanded, feeling his anger come as he kicked himself for foolishly thinking that his last living mortal descendant would be safe from his life. “You go after Elizabeth? Now you’re trying to use Dean? Boy, you’ve been a coward since you were a pup but nothin’ like this. You hurt her?”

“Check the papers, brother. Your little great granddaughter was found with her heart and throat ripped out week before last,” Lucien laughed at the swearing being done at him. “Needed her to find out if you had another weakness and then she told me, after a great deal of screaming and begging, about Winchester.

“What’s the deal with him, Benny? He’s already got a brother…not a great one and one I’m sure will take the hint and walk away like he should’ve this time since you know better than anyone how I like to keep my pets,” he cupped a hand under Dean’s jaw to force his head up. “Of course, maybe I could give him to you to keep. That what he is, Benny? He a pet, a toy to use when…”

Glass broke in the room as Sam threw a lamp into the mirror over the dresser and he tried to grab for the phone but a strong hand placed flat on his still bruised chest kept him still and nearly quiet as he felt like screaming at the bragging vamp on the phone.

“Enough,” Benny cut in with a very different tone. The deep and smooth voice was there but the accent had gotten more thick as he fought his anger which would bring on the side that he didn’t want to show while in the room with a pissed off hunter. “You put Dean on the phone, Luc. You put him on so I know he’s alive, you let him talk freely and then I’ll give you what you want.”

Silence came over the phone and for a moment both hunter and vampire wondered if the call had ended before a very disgruntled huff was heard then other sounds could be heard and Benny did not want to look over at his friend’s brother because he did not want to see his eyes right then.

“My brother, the so-called loyal friend who’s only loyal when it suits him, wants to hear from you, boy,” Lucien had reached down to free the gag from Dean’s mouth while holding the phone out. “You can say whatever you want to him so he doesn’t think I’m controlling you.”

Trying to work some saliva back into his mouth from being gagged on top of the taste in his mouth from whatever he was being shot up with; Dean managed to glare daggers up at his captor before eyeing the phone in front of him and knew it was set to speaker.

“…Benny?” his voice sounded odd even to his own ears and he wasn’t sure why but at the moment Dean knew his time was short, forcing his head to clear enough to do this.

“Hey, brother…you alright?” Benny asked, hearing something from behind him and realized it was the sound of Sam’s teeth clenching when he greeted Dean like he always had.

If he could move or think straight he might’ve come up with a better reply but right then all Dean could do was make a soft sound that might’ve been part scoff and part laugh. “Oh, yeah. I’m just peachy,” he muttered, biting down hard on his lip as his stomach seemed to cramp suddenly. “You got me into one helluva mess here, dude.”

“Yeah, I did and…we’ll get you outta it,” Benny seemed to stress the plural part of his reply to make certain his friend understood. “How many times?” he asked suddenly, sensing the restless prowling going on behind him but knowing there was no way he could put Sam on the phone yet. “Dean, how many…”

“Six and…I lost count,” Dean sounded quieter as his eyes suddenly wanted to close but made himself stare at the phone, surprised his captor was giving him this much time but he suspected he knew what Benny wanted to know and gave a tiny smirk at the soft curse. “Yep, that’s…my thought. Sammy…he with you?”

Dean had heard a little of the vampire’s early conversation to know he’d been talking to his brother which caused his to feel an odd sense of security while also hating the risk this would place Sam in.

“Yeah, he’s here,” Benny glanced back at Sam and nodded to indicate the phone.

“Dean?” fighting back the burst of emotion and words that wanted to explode, Sam clamped down on them until he’d gotten his brother back. “I…I think I might’ve scratched the car.”

Benny shot him a confused look since he’d seen the pools of tears shining in big hazel eyes before Sam had spoken but when he heard a soft but almost slurred chuckle from the other end he guessed Dean wasn’t shocked by the statement.

It never failed to amaze Dean that no matter how many years have gone by or what they’ve been through that he could still hear the fear and unshed tears in his little brother’s voice even as messed up as he figured he was right then.

He had so much he could say to Sam but knew his time was running out and needed to make one point clear to Benny before he lost the phone so to Sam he merely offered a simple… “Apple pie life time, Sammy. Find it and Benny? You…remember that promise I made you give me before…before we got out?”

“Yeah, brother, I remember it,” swallowing a little at the lump in his throat, the vampire slid a look over to see that Sam’s face was pale as he shook his head in difference to what he’d taken his brother’s words to mean. “I said I would and I will. I’ll…watch out for your boy,” he assured him, hearing a small cry of pain and wanting to slam his fist through something. “You hang on, Dean. You keep fighting for him and we’ll get to you.”

Dean wanted to believe that but as he took in the IV needle being readied he suddenly had a sick feeling that it wouldn’t be as simple as that. “You…watch his back cause…he’s…not safe and ugh!”

“That’s touching,” Lucien had let the conversation go on longer than he normally would have because he thought it would be amusing to see his captive beg but when he didn’t get that and heard an actual emotion coming from his own brother for this mortal and was furious as he shoved the gag back in roughly while snapping his fingers. “I might decide to kill him or turn him after all just to see your face, Benny.”

“You touch him and it’s over, Luc,” Benny warned tightly, hearing the way Dean sounded and knew he was in much more danger than from just being turned. “You hurt Dean more than you have or you use that crap on him and I’ll end you long before his brother will. Where you at?”

Laughing at the threat even though he knew Benny was far from harmless, Lucien lifted his eyes to gaze around the room. “You should know where I am, brother. You know I never could be far from home,” he chuckled as Dean cried out around the gag as something was inserted in his neck. “I wouldn’t keep me waitin’. You know how fast a body loses blood in these parts.”

“Lucien! Damn it!” Benny swore under his breath, turning to see Sam staring at him. “He’s goin’ to be fine. We’ll get him back.”

“What’s he doing to him?” Sam demanded, not bothering to care that his hands were shaking. “Dean didn’t sound right and it’s from something more than just blood loss.”

Benny held out the phone but when Sam hesitated to take it, slipped it into his own pocket for the moment. “Lucien drugs his victims, Sam. He was good with drugs growin’ up and once he became a vampire he figured out that different drugs in the blood make it taste different so he douses ‘em up with combos of drugs and that’s how he keeps his nest in line too because they drink from the person and get high on the blood.

“Dean…he sounds like he’s been given something but Lucien will make it worse for him because he wants to hurt him,” he sighed and saw Sam’s eyes go wider as this sank in. “Dying from blood loss or even being turned would be better options because coming down from the high and the drugs is never easy but…hey, Sammy…what’s wrong?”

Sam had started pacing as the vampire’s words registered with him but now he was even more worried because he knew what Benny didn’t. “Dean can’t get drugged like that. He can’t be because…shit…he just can’t be and…don’t call me that,” the name hit him and the same feeling came that did whenever anyone but Dean called him that. “Only Dean calls me that.”

“Fair enough,” Benny offered a small smile, lifting a hand up to mean he didn’t mean anything by it even though Dean had told him often in Purgatory how he was the only living person allowed to call his brother by that nickname. “Why can’t Dean be drugged?”

It was something about learning this that had notched the kid’s panic up and while Benny knew between losing blood, probably being hurt in other ways and drugged that Dean’s recovery wouldn’t be easy, it didn’t explain the way Sam seemed to be reacting.

“Because he can’t be,” Sam snapped, dragging a hand through his hair just as his own phone began to ring and he felt like snarling. “Bad time, Garth!”

“Tell me about it,” Garth shot back, clearly distracted since he normally would never take that tone with either Winchester. “You talk to Dean yet? I told him to tell you when I talked to him earlier.”

Wanting to close his eyes and pretend this whole mess was a nightmare but finally sighed. “Dean’s been grabbed by vampires so I haven’t had a chance to talk to him yet,” Sam told the other hunter then frowned. “Wait. What did you tell Dean to tell me?”

“Shit, Sam. Morrison’s gunning for you and he doesn’t care who knows it,” Garth was alarmed and it showed because there were no jokes or any banter this time. “I told Dean and…Sam?”

Benny had been watching Sam and he was glad he was when he saw all the color drain from the young man’s face, grabbing his arm to keep him from hitting the floor as his legs wanted to buckle. “Hey! Sam? Don’t you go passin’ out on me now. Sam!”

Already tired and stressed from the recent weeks of nearly constant fighting with his brother, worried about Dean in the hands of vampires on top of fearing for his brother’s survival or recovery the sudden name of Shane Morrison from Garth soon had Sam’s head spinning and only a rush to the barely cleaned bathroom kept him from making an even bigger mess on the floor.

“That ain’t good,” Benny decided, snatching the phone up from where it fell from Sam’s fingers. “Who the hell is this and what the hell you say to set this kid off?” he demanded, voice pure whiskey coated Cajun accent and temper as he stepped closer to see Sam’s stomach emptying the rest of the way. “Well?”

“Who’s this?” Garth countered at the unexpected voice.

The skinny hunter knew that normally the Winchesters didn’t hunt with anyone else and Dean hadn’t mentioned it earlier so he was more than a little suspicious especially upon learning about Dean’s kidnapping.

“I asked you first,” Benny responded smoothly, glancing down when a hand hit his leg and Sam’s fingers were motioning for his phone back. “You look like something your brother and I watched grow on a side of a tree down in Purgatory,” he remarked but gave up the phone.

“No, I’m not alright and no, I’m not telling you who that was,” Sam muttered after cutting Garth off, letting his head rest on the arm he had propped on the toilet seat. “You know where he’s at now?”

Garth was doing his own version of a bitch face while shaking his head as if anyone could see him. “Last I heard he was somewhere in the Texas panhandle which is too damn close if your still in Louisiana,” he retorted. “Sam, Dean sounded like he didn’t know anything about…you did tell Dean about what happened…oh sweet holy Batman,” he let out a low gasp. “He _doesn’t_ know?”

Suddenly his whole conversation with the elder Winchester made sense. “Sam! You’ve got a nut job hunter chasing after your ass after he did one helluva a number on you before, or from what I could get outta you or Jeff, and you didn’t think it was important to at least mention it to your brother?” he know fully understood why Bobby Singer was often pissed off. “You’ve gotta…”

“No, I…I won’t hide or run. Not while Dean’s in trouble,” Sam broke in, feeling like someone was watching him and hating that he’d let this happen while Benny was there. “Just…call Jeff and tell him. Maybe he can…”

“Who do you think called me? Jefferson said for you to warn Dean because I guess he hates Morrison anyway and…Sam, do you need help with this?” Garth knew Winchesters hated accepting help but this just felt wrong to him.

“No…I’ll handle it but just go keep an eye on Jeff in case the moron decides if he can’t get me he’ll try for him,” Sam hated that the now retired hunter would be dragged back into his problems but he needed to focus, he needed to find Dean…now more than ever.

Garth seemed to want to argue the point but the steady buzz of a dial tone told him that he’d been hung up on and he glared at it before making a choice that could get him killed.

“You alright?” Benny stayed silent until he thought Sam was ready to hear from him, not sure why he felt the inclination to wet a rag and hold it out. “You in some kind of trouble Dean don’t know about, Sam?”

“My ‘trouble’ is part of the reason my brother hates me right now,” Sam replied, bitterness plain in his voice but he stared at the cloth before taking it with a jerk. “Why he thinks he can’t depend on me and why he’d rather spend his time with you. It’s why he trusts you as a ‘brother’ instead of me because he thinks I didn’t look for him.”

Taking that in, Benny considered slapping his friend as soon as he rescued him because he’d spent a year listening to Dean Winchester talk but mostly all he talked about was his baby brother so for Dean to say that to a kid who clearly thought the world of him then either his friend was blind or still riding the edge of what he’d done below.

Sam had mentioned that Dean never talked about Purgatory which told the vampire that Dean was keeping it all inside and slowly things began to make more sense.

Now all he needed to do was stay alive and keep Dean alive long enough to maybe fix this crapshoot of a mess the hunter had let happen.

“C’mon, we need to get moving because it’s more than a day’s drive to where we need to be,” he gave Sam all the time they could afford right then before nudging him with a boot. “Sam, I can do this alone if you can’t…”

“He’s _my_ brother so I’m going to get him back,” Sam threw the rag before pushing himself to his feet to step very close into Benny’s space. “I may have let him down. He may think he can’t trust me to have his back anymore and he may think I left him for dead but I will be dead or damned again before I let him be hurt by _your_ brother.”

Poking a finger hard into the vampire’s chest, the hunter’s dislike showed in his eyes but another flicker of something crossed his face but vanished a second later. “Dean may want me to walk away to that normal apple pie life we both used to want but I’m going to show him that I meant what I said when I chose to stay with him and hunt.

“He may have to think that I didn’t care enough to look for him but I will not walk away now. I will not let him go through this alone and if that means putting up with you while doing it then that’s what I’ll do. Now back off.”

If it occurred to Sam that he was poking a vampire in the chest or that he was essentially telling that very same vampire off in his own quiet way he didn’t let on as the two held eyes for a long moment while understanding passed. Then he was shoving past to go grab his and Dean’s duffel bags.

“You seriously don’t like me do you, Sam?” Benny found it amusing that even though he was a few inches shorter than Sam that the boy hadn’t even blinked while getting in his face. “If we’re getting Dean back, you wanna share why exactly?”

“You’re a vampire, I’m a hunter. Those two things should really explain it,” Sam shot back, refusing to think his dislike was anything but that but the soft chuckle behind him that suggested that Benny suspected there was more still made him growl. “I hate that I have to get your help but my brother is more important to me than killing you right now is but don’t push me.”

As Sam stormed out to put the duffels in the Impala, Benny reached for his jacket and hate while chuckling to himself. “Right, and I can sell that boy a bridge or two if he thinks that’s all there is to this,” he told himself, beginning to understand Dean’s little brother a bit more and also understanding Dean’s choice of actions a couple months back even if he didn’t think Sam did fully.

“Brother, you are so gonna me one for doing this,” Benny again spoke to himself while wondering what Sam would think if he knew just what Dean had made him promise while in Purgatory. “Boy won’t like it, that’s for sure,” he knew that as simply as he knew that Sam would kill him if he believed he had a reason and that just wasn’t in the cards as far as the vampire was concerned.

He wanted Dean rescued from his brother as much as Sam did. He hadn’t planned on the hunter being targeted by his enemies or what lengths Lucien would go to this time and he didn’t want to risk pissing Sam off more by telling him just what else could be happening to his brother.

So with a mental note that he was dealing with Dean’s little brother, the little brother that Dean spent practically every waking moment in Purgatory talking about and was now treating the kid like dirt for some reason Benny couldn’t fathom right then, he reminded himself of that damn promise and started to go out to his truck for a tarp to do something with the bodies that he knew couldn’t be left lying around for maid service to find.

Benny noticed that despite his current state of unease that Sam had still cleared out anything that could be tracked back to him and Dean and he had to remind himself just how much alike the Winchesters really were even if they couldn’t see it themselves.

He’d only taken two steps when he heard the first gunshot and a look out the open door gave a clear view of Sam on the ground not moving and a big son of a bitch with a gun aimed at his head standing over him and he hesitated.

He was aware that whoever this man was he meant Sam harm and he could easily prevent that. However he was also more acutely aware that once this was over and Dean was back safe and reasonably sound that the younger Winchester would more than likely try to kill him and that if he stood still to allow the next bullet to fire then his problem would be over.

Benny’s hearing what acutely better than a normal human’s and he picked up every word the big man was saying even though Sam still hadn’t moved and closed his eyes to step back. “Sorry, Dean,” he muttered.

Sam was distracted as he tossed the duffels into the back seat for the moment. He needed a better plan than just following Benny wherever because while he wanted to believe the vampire was loyal enough not to let Dean die he’d been trained to hunt by the best man alive and his brother had always told Sam to go in with more than one plan and to always have a way out.

Well, he wasn’t getting out until he had Dean and if that meant wading through a whole nest of drugged up vampires then that’s what Sam would do.

He just wanted to see his brother safe before being forced to deal with this other matter that had chosen a piss poor time to come back into the light because while Sam hated the strain that was between him and Dean right then he knew he’d hate it more if he was forced to come clean to his brother about those two months right after he disappeared.

Pushing those memories aside to focus his full attention on the matter at hand, Sam was just turning when he felt the danger only a heartbeat too late to avoid the bullet that hit his shoulder and knocked him to the ground with a cry of surprised pain.

“What the…” he groaned as his head hit the pavement hard, stunning him until he heard the sound of the weapon cocking and barely able to bring the blue-black barrel of a .357 handgun aimed at his face.

Not being able to see clearly didn’t prevent him from hearing and he wasn’t sure if his stomach flipped due to the sudden shock his body had been sent into by being shot or if it was because of the deep gravelly voice he heard over him.

“Hey, Sammy-boy…guess this is the end of the line.”

Sam bite down the cry that wanted to come out when a heavy boot pressed down over the hand that was trying to stop the bleeding on his shoulder but could only look up into the barrel, refusing to give the other hunter what he truly wanted and offered a silent apology to his brother for yet another failure as he wanted the killing bullet to fire.

A thick finger brushed over the trigger guard of the big weapon to slowly squeeze the trigger with a sneer. “Promised you I’d be back to finish that dance. Now you can go to hell with that bastard brother of yours,” Shane Morrison pulled firmly to fire his next round.

 **Bang**!

 

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, another cliffhanger. What will Benny do? Can Sam get out of this so he can find Dean? Update coming soon.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As a piece of the past from Sam's year alone resurfaces, will he and Benny be able to work together long enough to find and rescue Dean or will things go from bad to worse?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for mild language and a little slight violence towards the end. This chapter also begins to explain a few things that have been brought up.

** Chapter Four **

****

****

The gun shot that fired sounded like a canon shot to Sam Winchester’s ringing ears but it was the shock that he felt his face being hit with dirt and little pebbles when the slug struck the hot asphalt near him rather than his head that snapped his attention back to the here and now rather than the memories of his life literally flashing in front of his eyes.

“You think I’ll let you off that easy, Winchester?” Shane Morrison sneered, leaning down to place the barrel of the .357 under Sam’s chin to force his head up. “I thought I taught you a lesson last year but you survived that and then ran away like the coward I always knew you boys were,” he looked up toward the motel. “I heard through the grapevine that your big brother was back. Maybe he and I should have a little chat and then see how tough he still thinks he is?”

Morrison was a big man or thought he was at least. He barely hit six foot in height but what he lacked in height he made up for in muscle and cheap shots, like taking his opponents by surprise.

“You know, Dean and I had issues from back when you were just a kid,” he kept the gun under Sam’s chin in warning while pressing down hard on the bleeding shoulder. “Punk thought he was so good. I think maybe after I give him the lowdown on you that I’ll remind him of his own place.”

“You…don’t touch my brother,” Sam gritted, pain burning down his arm but unable to get the leverage right then to push the older man off him. “Dean…he’s better than you will ever hope to be,” he tasted blood when a hard fist plowed into his jaw but didn’t stop. “You wanna tell him? You think he’ll give a damn? Go ahead but I won’t promise he will since he’s kinda pissed at me.”

Sam knew that making the hunter mad was a risk but it was his only chance at getting free or if he died then he could only hope that his brother made it through this in one piece.

“Though…he’d probably still kick your ass just for…the hell of it,” he gave a smirk without realizing how close to Dean’s best cocky look he was but then grunted when the barrel of the Magnum gave a hard poke.

“I’m gonna shoot your knees out this time to make sure you can’t get away then I’ll deal with your big brother, punk,” Morrison snarled, furious and wanting to draw this out since he knew the boy wasn’t going to be going anywhere and while he didn’t want to tangle with the older Winchester he thought he knew how these boys worked and distracting Dean would get him the upper hand.

Lifting the gun, he gave it another hard poke to Sam’s already bruised chest before standing to aim it at a knee with a smile. “This’ll hurt, pretty boy.”

The weight of Morrison’s boot kept Sam from kicking out and he heard the weapon cock but the next thing he felt was just the slightest change, both in the air and the weight on him when the man was physically moved to slam into the rusted old pickup parked near the Impala.

“Interrupting something?” the smooth whiskey coated voice was suddenly very welcome to Sam even though he’d never admit that to anyone living.

“Stupid son of a bitch!” Shane Morrison snarled, whirling back around to face the man who’d just spoiled his fun when he found a hand wrapped tightly around the wrist holding his weapon and he was forced to drop it. “This is…this is private business asshole!”

Benny had debated with himself for all of two minutes before making the choice that put him between this man and the younger Winchester.

He figured Sam may hate what he was and he may hate his friendship with Dean but to Benny he had something more important to consider right then; aside from Dean’s reaction if he willingly had allowed anything to happen to Sam.

“It may well be but see here’s where we have a problem,” Benny stepped forward to crowd into the man’s space while giving his wrist a harder squeeze, not enough to break it or give away what he really was but enough to warn. “You have some issues with Sam here. Sam’s got issues with me on a lotta levels but I’ve got a promise to keep to his brother so I think your business needs to wait.”

Before Morrison could reply or lash out, Benny’s other hand flashed to grab him by the neck and slammed his head into the hood of this truck a few times until he was certain the man was unconscious then let him drop.

Looking around to see if the shots had drawn any of the clearly wise citizens out of their homes or businesses, Benny nodded before heading back to reach down and pull Sam up as he was attempting to get to his feet. “Take it Dean don’t know about him?”

“No and he won’t be finding out about him either,” Sam had his doubts about that since keeping his brother from learning about the hunter if Garth had already brought it up would be hard but could only hope that in the confusion of all this that he’d forget about it. “I’m…fine. Is he or…?”

“He’ll wake up pissed off but he’d still breathing,” Benny shrugged, seeing the blood leaking from between Sam’s fingers as he held it over his shoulder and pushed back the urge that came on instinct. “You need stitches?”

Sam figured he did but he also knew he just wanted out of this place. He wanted to find his brother and have something else to focus on besides his own failures. “I’ll get ‘em later. We need to find Dean and…be far away from here before Morrison wakes up.”

Benny figured Sam wasn’t happy about him saving him and stayed quiet for the moment as he watched the hunter try to slow the bleeding for the moment. “Well, you can’t get no farther away from here than St. Rioux Basin which is deep in the heart of Cajun country and no too few amount of bayous,” he nodded back to the room. “Let me do something about that and then you follow me…can you drive, Sam?”

“I’ve driven with a lot more wrong with me than a bleeding shoulder,” Sam replied, sitting in the driver’s seat as a silent agreement to allow the vampire to handle disposing of the bodies as quickly as possible.

Touching the rubber bracelet on his wrist, something Benny said dawned on Sam and he also remembered what he’d said to Dean on the phone earlier and frowned a little more. “What promise?” he asked after Benny exited the room for the final time to finish placing the tarp wrapped body and parts in the back of his truck for a quick disposal in the first decent swamp they passed.

“You said you had a promise to keep to Dean and…he mentioned something about a promise too before he had the phone taken away,” Sam looked up to see Benny too close but his curiosity had always been a problem for him. “So…what promise did you make Dean or that he made you make?”

Benny supposed he should’ve been more careful in choosing his words earlier since he suspected that Dean wouldn’t want the boy to know too much and he firmly suspected that Sam wouldn’t appreciate it if he knew and tried to get around it as easy as possible.

“Nothing to worry about, Sam,” he shrugged, tugging his hat a little lower on his head as if to shield his eyes from the hot sun but was suddenly reminded that Sam shared another trait with his big brother.

Both Winchesters were stubborn as hell and once Sam hooked onto something he wasn’t letting go until he knew.

“No, don’t pull that crap,” Sam snapped, going to stand up but the sudden dizziness decided that he should stay sitting. “Vampires don’t usually make promises and Dean doesn’t normally ask for promises because he’s had too many broken on him so…what the hell is it? What did he ask you to do that caused you to save me just now because I really thought you’d just ignore this.”

“Tempted,” Benny admitted, opening his truck door but paused to look back with a slow smile. “Then I thought what Dean would do to me and…since I had promised him back in Purgatory that I’d watch out for his little brother I figured keeping you alive just then was the better choice.”

Sam had to blink a few times to get past that because of all the things he might’ve expected the vampire to say that sure as hell hadn’t been one of them but he was forced to let it go for the moment as the old pickup pulled out of the motel lot.

St. Rioux Basin was, according to Sam’s GPS, more than a day’s drive from Saundersville and even though he knew he could cut it in half if he knew where he was going, he allowed Benny’s truck to lead the way down what he figured had to be every back road and dirt trail in the bottom part of Louisiana.

Concern for Dean kept a lot of his thoughts off himself or the now bleeding again shoulder wound but no matter how hard he tried he kept coming back to the fact that his brother had asked Benny, a vampire, to keep an eye on him and it just didn’t make sense to him.

Ignoring how Sam had gone to bat for Lenore and her nest, Dean should’ve suspected that Sam wouldn’t respond well to any vampire and especially not to one that had been with him in Purgatory.

“But I didn’t know where Dean was then,” he spoke to the silent and oddly empty feeling Impala. “If I didn’t know that or even know right away what Benny was I might’ve bought into the whole look after Dean’s brother bit but why would he need someone else to do that? Dean didn’t know what happened to me or that I wasn’t looking for him so…shit!”

A wave of dizziness caught him off guard and it was only quick reflexes along with the basic knowledge that he’d be dead if he scratched his brother’s car that had him swerving to regain control but had to pull off the road to stop things from spinning.

“He will so kick my ass if I hurt her,” he mumbled, climbing out of the car without even seeing the truck ahead of him had stopped and backed up.

Sam didn’t realize it until a set of firm hands practically lifted him out of the Impala and by the time he did he was leaning against the warm hood. “Hey! What’re you doing?”

“You look worse than I do when I try to see how long I can go without the blood,” Benny told him, seeing how pale Sam looked and trying to judge if he had enough time before the sun went down fully to do what he needed to. “How long this been bleedin’ again?” he asked while snorting at the slight shrug to lean into the car to pull the switch that opened the trunk. “Kit in the back?”

“Umm, yeah,” Sam’s head still wasn’t clear and he knew he was in shock before it hit him what was asked. “What? The medical kit? Why? What’re you doing?”

Taking a quick look at just what was in the trunk made Benny whistle and also reminded him to stay on Dean’s good side once this was over since he figured the boys had several ways to kill any number of creature and or monster.

Seeing the medical kit, he grabbed it and shut the trunk hard enough that Sam winced. “You need stitches or else do you plan on fallin’ on your face while fighting vamps to get your brother outta there alive?” he asked curiously, opening the kit up while shooting Sam’s bitch face down with a single look. “Sam, you’re good and I’m sure you’ve stitched yourself up plenty but that wounds got an exit and there ain’t no way that he could stitch the exit wound.

“Now, do you want to bleed out or do you want to swallow that pride about having to let me help you so that we can go get Dean back?” he lifted an eyebrow while waiting to see what the choice would be. “You wouldn’t have gotten out of that parkin’ lot if Dean had been here and we both know it.”

“If Dean was here none of this would be happening,” Sam retorted, wincing when he heard his own voice and clamped his eyes shut to avoid seeing the amusement in the vampire’s gaze. “Fine, do it,” he told him then frowned. “Can you? I mean…I know it’s bleeding and…”

“Like I told your brother more than once, I drink blood…not people, Sam,” Benny had done a fair amount of stitching himself and others up in his life and figured this would be no different as he waited for Sam to struggle to out of his shirts so he could get a better look at the wound. “ _Shit_ ,” he breathed. “How many of these don’t Dean know about?”

Forgetting for the moment that he still had some scars on his back and upper chest from his last encounter with Morrison, Sam sighed. “Most of the new ones,” he shrugged, hissing as something was poured over his shoulder and promised himself to switch the disinfectant out with something like whiskey. “There hasn’t been reason for him to see ‘em. Not sure he’d care if he did.”

“Oh, he’d care or at least the man I got to know in Purgatory would,” Benny figured even if Dean was angry with his kid brother that he’d still care considering the one scar on his back looked way too close to a kidney to have been good.

“My brother _before_ Purgatory, before he thought I didn’t look for him would care. Now…a part of me thinks it just be out of standard big brother duty,” looking over, Sam felt his stomach pitch when he saw the needle begin to sew up the entrance wound and tried to find something else to focus on.

Sam had been stitched up plenty of times in his life but usually it was Dean doing it to him or he’d figured out how to do it himself during those times his older brother wasn’t with him.

Watching as a stranger does it felt weird to him. Even weirder yet was that he was watching a vampire sew him up but the professional side of Sam’s brain accepted that Benny’s points were valid.

He couldn’t have gotten the wound on the back of his shoulder and he couldn’t go to a clinic because he wouldn’t waste that much time, not while his brother was in danger but Sam also shrugged a good chunk of his unease off to the simple fact that he didn’t like to have hands on him that he didn’t trust one hundred percent.

“Relax or this is gonna leave another good scar,” Benny knew Sam didn’t want him doing this but he also knew he couldn’t take the time to pick the kid up from the floor when he passed out due to blood loss and getting into the next to rescue Dean was not going to be a walk in the bayou no matter how much he tried to pretend otherwise.

“Not so easy to do since I’ve got a vampire putting a needle in my skin and I’m kinda distracted by the fact that if I hadn’t stormed off on him this might not have happened,” Sam sounded off, his voice a little too distant and Benny began to worry about not only shock but also the blood loss.

“Would’ve been worse if you’d been there, Sam,” he remarked, sure of that. “Lucien wouldn’t have hesitated to use you against Dean and that’s what we’ll have to watch for when we get there.”

Sam snorted, hissing as pain shot through his shoulder and fought back the urge to fight. “Is the part that Dean and I are fighting almost constantly, that he’s pissed off at me, not sinking in with you?” he dropped his eyes to the bracelet around his wrist again to once again wonder why his brother had it out.

“This about me and him or something else?” Benny asked curiously, guessing if he kept Sam talking then he’d relax more. Plus he was curious what the hell would make his friend act this way.

“Both,” came the reply which told the vampire that the young hunter was distracted. “I don’t like that he didn’t tell me about you or how he’s pretty much chosen you over me like he did before with Cas but I know it’s cause he’s mad that I didn’t look for him.”

“Uh-huh,” Benny had to look away for a second to control the building need for fresh blood when Sam’s tone caught him and he began to listen closer and realized either the pain or the shock seemed to be making him talk a little freer than he normally would. “So him being pals with a vampire bugging you?”

“Little…okay a lot but maybe not so much if he just would have told me about it before I found out on my own or if he’d at least talk about what he went through with you down there,” Sam’s fingers were moving over the band on his wrist like he used to when on edge or worried. “He didn’t talk about Hell either except for a few things but I got the gist of it and why he didn’t want to but with Purgatory…all he says is it felt pure and then he shuts me out and…I miss him.”

Watching Sam’s face as the lowering sun hit it, Benny realized the man probably wasn’t even aware of what he was saying but kept quiet as he began to stitch the exit wound up while seeing that it was a bit more of a mess. “This is gonna hurt, man,” he warned, reached for the alcohol and some cotton to clean the wound out before he started. “Dean missed you too.”

“Doubt if he does now since he believes that I stopped looking right after he and Cas vanished,” Sam sighed, keeping his eyes down to stare at either his boots sitting on the front bumper or the dirt on the side of the road. “I meant I miss him now cause while he’d here…it’s like a huge part of Dean, the part that I’d always known, didn’t come out with you.”

“Damn it, Dean, what in the hell are you doing?” Benny muttered under his breath, understanding or at least he hoped he did what his friend was doing and also what he was keeping in. He also knew neither thing would be good in the long run now.

The Louisiana native vampire also realized something else. Sam was hurting from things other than the bullet wound and that was going to mess the kid’s head up in the coming fight and made a decision that may piss the older Winchester off once he found out about it but he’d chance it.

“You asked me and I told you what Dean made me promise him before we got out…that I’d keep an eye on you for him but I…didn’t tell you why he wanted that promise made,” he began casually enough, tightening his grip when he felt Sam tense as the more jagged exit wound stung as it was cleaned out. “Y’see, since I’d been down there no one had ever gotten out. I’d seen a lot of attempts but I’d never seen anything actually make it and then it was a case of even surviving the trip out if it was possible.

“Sam, I reckon I know why Dean’s keepin’ quiet about his time in Purgatory and I can’t go tellin’ you stuff that he’d keepin’ to himself for a reason but…I will tell you that Purgatory wasn’t all fun and games for your brother and that was before I found him,” Benny paused to rethread the needle, feeling the shoulder relax a little and knowing without looking up that he had more of Sam’s attention.

“I didn’t see a lot of humans down there because usually they didn’t last long with the monsters and critters that lived in Purgatory but it wasn’t a huge secret that the second Dean got there he became prime target number one to everything down there and he was by himself against a horde of vamps, monsters, etc that all wanted his head on a spike.”

Sam had decided he wasn’t going to listen to the vampire, figuring he was just saying stuff to keep him relaxed but he was still a good judge of people and knew by the tone of voice that Benny wasn’t making this up. “Wait. Where the hell was Cas?” he asked suddenly, not sure why but he’d believed that the Angel had been with his brother for at least the beginning of their entrapment.

“Not sure but he wasn’t with Dean when I finally had to step in to save his neck and then he tried to take my head in the first five seconds,” Benny smirked at the memory. “You boys both have that kill first, ask questions later mentality about you,” he decided, going on when he started the first few stitches. “He didn’t trust me anymore than you do, not at first but we both shared a common goal: getting the hell outta that place.

“I knew where the exit was supposed to be but only a human could escape so we needed each other. He’d been there about a month before I found him and I could tell by one look he was already on the verge of breaking,” he paused when Sam took a deep breath against the pain.

“Y’see, all it was down there was one fight to survive. You slept and you died because those things would rip a man apart in his sleep just for the fun of it and it was pretty plain that Dean hadn’t slept since being there. The first night after we joined up was probably the first time that boy’d had any sleep since he’d found himself there and then it wasn’t a good sleep cause he woke up screaming…for you.”

Sam was now trying to look over his shoulder but couldn’t since that made it hard to keep his shoulder straight and relaxed so the wound would close cleanly. “He thought I was looking for him and I was but then…I had to stop,” he murmured, trying to picture Purgatory from what little Dean had said to how Benny was describing it and feeling cold at the thought of his brother fighting alone while staying awake all the time. “Did…I mean, did he…”

“I caught on pretty fast that when he screamed for you in his sleep it was more out of a fear for you, of something happening to you than anything else,” Benny guessed what Sam was trying to ask as he went on with both speaking and stitching. “It was about a week before I brought it up because he was still pretty skittish around me but it was after he got jumped by a couple things and had his leg tore up and couldn’t move real well for a day or so that he began to talk. Wanna guess what he talked about most?”

“Knowing Dean probably how he personally put most of those things down there,” Sam decided, biting his lip as a stitch pulled and he nearly passed out but fought it as he listened to the voice speaking behind him as it laughed.

Wiping away a small bit of fresh blood, Benny shook his head at Sam’s theory. “It was more like how him and Sam put those things down there,” he replied, feeling Sam still and knew he had his full attention now. “You’re basically all Dean talked about Sam. When he was awake and not snarling about stupid Leviathans and vanishing Angels he talked about his little brother and when I told you that I’d heard a lot about you when we first met I wasn’t kiddin’.”

“Dean…talked about me?” since he knew his brother wasn’t the chatty type of guy in normal circumstances this was a huge shock for Sam but it also caused a little lump to form in his throat.

“Sam, I could probably tell you what you scored on some test in college if I thought hard enough. You were all Dean talked about and it was clear as day how proud he was of you. That’s why he wanted out of there so much. You were on your own and that worried Dean,” Benny could see why now but chose to leave that out of the talk as he found his way back to his original point.

“After we’d found the Angel and were almost to the door, that night Dean woke up and I knew he was serious when he said he wanted me to do him a favor cause in that whole time I don’t think he’d ever done that. You know you brother’s a lot smarter than he lets on to be because he’d figured out the risk before I could mention it. Dean knew that even if we made it to the door that he might not survive the transition,” Benny finished the patch up job then let Sam take over to cover his shoulder in gauze as he took a couple steps away.

He’d been hoping that by telling Sam a little that he’d get a better handle on why his brother might be shutting down about it but this was the part he really was leery on admitting but knew he’d started it. “Dean’s theory was that he’d survive the trip home or at least long enough to get me to where my bones where and that’s when he made me promise to watch out for his little brother.

“I thought he was kidding at first because he’d told me how you both grew up and I knew you take one look at me and want me dead and he agreed that would most likely be what would happen but he didn’t wanna die without knowing that someone would be there to have your back,” Benny smiled as he looked up at the setting sun to glance back, noticing the shining eyes.

“Dean may be a proud, arrogant, repressed son of a bitch but he went through Hell down there just trying to get back to you, for you, because he loved his pain in the ass little brother…his words,” he stepped forward then to take what he figured was going to happen just by reading the body language that was being given off. “He made me promise if I made it back and he didn’t to find you, watch out for you as much as I could but never to tell you what happened to him unless I had to.

“That’s the promise he reminded me of on the phone earlier because he wants you safe more than he cares about himself and if he’s pushing you away then he’s trying to keep all the crap from that time inside but he…yah, saw that coming,” he muttered, rubbing his jaw from where Sam punched it hard but barely moved him. “Happy now?”

No, in fact now Sam thought he knew how Dean felt those few times he punched Castiel since his already aching shoulder now had a throbbing fist to go with it but he couldn’t stop himself from punching the vampire even though he wasn’t sure what he was pissed off over.

Learning that Dean thought he would die trying to get out, asking Benny to watch out for him if he couldn’t or if he was just so angry that Dean was keeping all this crap in.

“He did all that, fought with you to make it back just to have me tell him that I’d quit hunting. He thinks I didn’t look because I can’t tell him the truth and he hates me for turning my back on him and what he gave up to raise me,” he began tightly, rubbing his fist and not aware of the moisture on his cheeks as he once again thought back to what Dean had tossed out to him before. “You had his back for a year. You could’ve used him as a way out then killed him but you didn’t…guess you are a better brother to him than…”

Benny stepped forward but held his hands up to relieve the tension that was radiating off of the younger man. “Sam, you and Dean grew up in this life together so you know better than anyone else what it’s like to grow close to someone because it’s do or die. Dean and me, well…Purgatory was like one never ending battle scene out of the bloodiest war. I had his back. He had mine but he never let me forget that I was a poor substitute for you and he’s done his best to keep us apart.”

“Yeah, I know,” that still pissed Sam off and it was plain in his voice as he glared how he felt. “He lied to me just to keep me away from you that time with Martin. Dean would rather trick me, lie to me than risk…hey! Let go,” he grabbed the wrist of the hand that had taken a hold of his shirt collar.

“You’re a smart boy, Sam or at least that’s what Dean always said,” Benny had cut him off when he realized what the kid really thought. “Dean tricked you yeah but he wasn’t protecting me or at least not fully. He was mainly trying to protect you.”

Pure bitch face shot out then as Sam rolled his eyes but still couldn’t break the grip on his shirt. “I’ve killed vampires before. You’d be no different,” he snapped though deep down he had his doubts because if he had gone after Benny with Martin and Dean got involved. “Besides, Martin still got killed so…”

“He was the first human I’d killed in a long time but he threatened my kin, Sam. That fella was a little too tightly wound and I think you knew that. Would you have trusted him with Dean? Cause I figure Dean sure didn’t trust him with you and that’s why he got you clear,” Benny lifted a wry eyebrow at Sam’s sudden change of expression.

“That fella didn’t care who got hurt and he would’ve hurt you or Dean to get to me cause he would’ve known to get Dean to back off all he had to do was hurt you, right? You were pissed off and not thinking clearly and he would’ve taken advantage of that. Dean might be hurt and angry right now but you’re still his brother, Sam and he’d still do whatever it took to keep you safe…including make you madder.”

Sam frowned, finally able to twist loose to toss the medical kit in the car while trying to think on what he was hearing and not wanting to believe it except…he’d known that Martin Cresser had been one step back into the looney bin.

Martin had been convinced Benny was the one killing people while Dean didn’t think so. Sam had let his own personal feelings…fine he was more than a little jealous of the damn vampire even if he’d never said it to anyone but himself, cloud his judgment.

He’d let Martin knock Dean out, cuff him because he wanted to believe that Benny had been guilty. He hadn’t trusted his brother again and when Dean had gone to tell him why Martin was dead, Sam didn’t let him so he hadn’t known the man had gone after an innocent woman just to lure Benny in.

If Dean had tried to stop Martin, Sam had no doubts that his brother would’ve been hurt or like Benny suggested Martin would have, could have gotten the drop on Sam to use him against Dean.

“I thought he was protecting you,” he whispered, fingers clenching as his eyes dropped to the road but looked up at the low chuckle. “What? Dean likes to protect things or people in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“Oh, I know,” he agreed lightly, finding Sam’s thoughts really amusing right then since the boy clearly had no idea what was going on in his brother’s head. “When he finally found me that time, the first thing he said to me was that if he couldn’t change your mind and you came lookin’ for me…if I laid a finger on you, if I hurt his little brother, he’d take my head in the next heartbeat.”

Sam stared at this, not understanding since Dean had already told him that Benny was a better brother than he’d been in years. Hearing that Dean had threatened his friend, someone he’d bonded with through the torments of Purgatory, was stunning to him.

“You’re his friend. Dean’s loyal to his friends so why would he…” he leaned back on the now cool hood as Benny offered him a half grin while cocking his head to watch him.

“Friends are friends to Dean and yeah, he’s loyal as hell but family’s something else and he’ll kill for you, Sam,” he thought back to Purgatory and sighed. “You trust me when I tell you that Dean wouldn’t choose me over you. Not now, not ever and he’s gonna need both of us to get him loose now so can you do this? Can you work with me long enough to get him back?”

Sam still had his doubts but some of the tension had gone away as he began to see things a little differently and he nodded slowly. “Yeah, for Dean I will,” he agreed, seeing the nod as Benny went back to his truck to make use of the nearby waterway since they were alone on the road. “How bad was he hurt down there?”

Easily manhandling the tarp of body parts out to toss it in, he paused as memories came back but knew it’d be up to Dean to reveal more to his brother about those months.

Glancing back at Sam and understanding a bit of what they might find when they got to Dean, Benny hesitated. “He got hurt a lot but not just physically,” he admitted, tossing back. “Those damn ‘shifters did the worst number on him so you just watch yourself when he starts coming off the drugs.”

“What?” Sam frowned as he thought about that while listening for the last splash and went ice cold as it sank in what Benny had just said and he considered how Dean acted for the first month of being back with him and he swore, understanding now why his brother kept silver on him at all times.

Dean hadn’t known to fully believe it was him or a goddamn shapeshifter. Neither of them cared for the damn things, Sam especially since St. Louis eight years earlier but being trapped in a place with a bunch of vengeful monsters would’ve been even worse and he could kick himself for not seeing it sooner.

Hating that they’d lost time while stitching him up, Sam walked around a couple more minutes to be sure he wouldn’t get dizzy again before opening the driver’s door again. “Why’d this guy choose this place anyway?” he asked suddenly.

“Because it’s home,” Benny shrugged, slamming the tailgate before getting back in the truck to start traveling again with the Impala keeping up to him better this time.

Glancing in the rearview mirror, he watched the black car. He told Sam too much but he hoped the kid understood a little more because he sure as hell did.

Benny might not have been a hunter but he’d always been shrewd and could get a handle on people. The first thing he’d picked up about his friend was that Dean was a loner usually and he hated admitting being weak or showing emotions.

Dean had been hurt in Purgatory but he’d also been forced to let go of his humanity a bit to just survive down there even with Benny’s help and that’s what the vampire figured his friend was holding back but by doing so, by lashing out he was just hurting the one person he’d fought to get back to.

“Brother, you are so gonna owe me for this one,” he sighed then made a not to himself not to call Dean that while around Sam because the kid was too insecure over how Dean was acting to accept having someone else call him that.

He figured Dean probably wasn’t even aware of how his words or actions were hurting Sam but then he also figured that once his friend found out that something else was going on with his little brother, that something had happened to prevent him from looking for Dean, that things would also change…assuming they got the elder Winchester out of this in one piece.

Of course then the vampire just had to figure out what else Sam was keeping because he sure as hell seemed alarmed about Lucien drugging Dean.

Normally the drugs his own brother used didn’t have long term effects depending on the type and amount given. He’d only seen one person seriously effected while coming down but that person had been addicted before in his life and…his dark eyes shot to the mirror with a frown.

“Hang on, Dean,” he spoke softly, hoping he could keep both of his promises because while he’d promised to watch after Sam if Dean couldn’t, he’d also promised to always have the older one’s back and he was determined to deal with his own mistake in his own way.

Sam’s thoughts were going in a hundred directions as he followed the pickup. While he still didn’t care for Benny he was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially if it meant to save his brother but if Sam didn’t stay focused on the pitch black back road he allowed himself to dwell too much on what he couldn’t stop of change.

His brother had been the vampire’s captive for over a day now and while he was confident they could get Dean out alive because the vamp in charge seemed more interested in tormenting and threatening at the moment and using his brother as leverage against Benny to want him dead.

That wasn’t Sam’s worry as his hands fisted on the steering wheel while shoving one of Dean’s favorite cassette tapes in just to get rid of the eerie silence in the car. No, his worry was how his brother would react once he was free…once he started coming out of whatever he’d been shot up with.

Sam had been fourteen the one and only time he’d seen his stern, no emotion showing, stoic father actually break down into tears after two weeks of listening to his oldest son fight, scream, curse, threaten and beg as he worked through a system shot full of drugs after a case went wrong.

He’d always looked up to his big brother and had believed that nothing could truly hurt Dean because his brother had always made it look so easy. He’d always shrugged off the pain and injuries but that time had left Dean shaken so much so that even once he finally came out of it, once he’d stopped thrashing, once his fever broke and the withdrawal pains left it was yet another three weeks before he really spoke and then that was only to Sam…when he pushed.

The doctor friend on Pastor Jim and Jefferson had warned their Dad that Dean may always be susceptible to some drugs and could slip back into them if exposed to the harder types for long periods and John had always been more cautious about the hunts he sent Dean out on alone after that.

It had taken a long time before his brother would even go on a hunt and Sam knew it was because of him that Dean finally did go back out or so Caleb told him later once Sam regained consciousness.

All Sam really recalled from that hunt was his Dad and brother fighting quietly at the start of what was supposed to be a simple spirit and by the time Sam woke up from nearly being killed by what turned out to be a very real and very nasty witch the fighting had turned loud with Dean being the most vocal.

Now he was faced with having to deal with his brother in a similar situation only this time Dean would be far more violent and a lot harder to handle given everything he’d been through in life, especially between Hell and Purgatory.

“Hang on, Dean,” he whispered, determined that he was not losing his brother like this even if it meant coming clean with him once he was well again. “I’m getting you out of this.”

** St. Rioux Basin, Louisiana: **

“Sir? Our sources report that your brother and another have entered the town limits. Should I put out the men to stop them?”

Lucien LaFitte lifted his eyes from where he’d been watching the thin line of tubing draw blood from a vein of his latest toy to merely glare at one of his underlings. “Stop them?” he scoffed, lightly wiping a drop of blood from the corner of his mouth before standing. “Of course I don’t want them stopped. I want my brother to be able to gain entrance…the hunter, on the other hand, you may play with but don’t kill or turn him until you bring him to me.”

Not paying attention as many of his vampires hurried from the room of the massive basement of the former colonial style old plantation house that he’d taken over, the head vampire shook his head wryly. “Brothers. They don’t seem to listen, do they?”

“Yours…or…mine?”

Dean Winchester didn’t even bother to attempt to lift his head or even try to move against the chains and ropes still binding him to the side of the chair.

He’d lost count of both the amount of injections of who knew what he’d been given as well as the times that either Benny’s so called brother or one of the others had used him as a food source since he’d first woken up but it was when he came to again to his body thrashing as much as possible against the heavy chair as his body fought the drugs that Dean knew he was in trouble.

Right then he honestly didn’t care if they drained him dry because he did not want to go through what he feared he would. He also didn’t want to put Sam through the nightmare again but knew in his gut that dying wouldn’t be coming fast.

The hunter wondered what he looked like by this point, besides like a well gnawed on chew toy. He figured his chest should be black and blue from the time one of the younger vamps got pissed off and tried to kick his side in but his eyes were too tired and sore from the heat of the flames kept roaring in the fireplace and sconces to tell.

What Dean did know was that he felt a lot more at ease with this using him as bait thing until he realized the bastard had put three different IV lines in various spots where he guessed his veins where the best.

It sickened him to realize the damn vampire was determined to keep him alive that he was giving him blood but it was second line that really made him literally throw up when he saw it being used like a straw so the head vampire could sit on his make shift throne and drink from him whenever he liked while using the third line to give him varying drugs whenever he though Dean was becoming too lucid or the shakes began.

Dean hated that he was having such a hard time focusing on anything but his memories and the pain he was in because he wanted to be, needed to be at least partially awake is he was going to be of any use in getting out of this mess.

The mere thought of Sam coming into a nest of vampires scared him to death because he knew while his brother could handle it, could handle himself, that Sam just wasn’t back to 100% yet and something tingled in the back of his head that made him wonder what he didn’t know.

“Either actually since your little brother certainly doesn’t listen well,” Lucien replied, going through his box of vials to find the one he’d been saving. “My big brother never did listen well so he’s not a shock. You want to see yours before I let my boys kill him?”

He might be drugged to the point of barely knowing his name, more than 50% of his body’s blood supply might’ve been drank or drained and he felt worse than he had since his first year in Hell but Dean still found the strength to finally open his eyes fully to offer a glare filled with hate at his captor.

“You…try…to touch Sam and…I’ll…” he gasped as pain shot through his lower body and prayed it was only because of how he’d been tied for so many hours. “I’ll…kill you.”

The vampire frowned a little, kneeling down to jerk Dean’s head back to gaze into his glassy, slightly dilated eyes and was truly surprised by what he seen reflected there. “You certainly could try, wouldn’t you?” he murmured, impressed by the human’s strength of will but also furious that he wasn’t a drooling mess or broken by this point.

“You think Benny will defend the boy, Dean?” he smirked, reaching for the vial to begin to hook it to the one IV line. “A vampire defend a hunter? I think you’re the exception to that rule but I can spare your brother…if you give in. If you willingly become a blood source for my nest…become my pet and your brother will live.”

“Go to hell,” Dean spat, tasting blood as he bit his already chewed on lip to keep from screaming as his veins literally began to burn but he did scream as he felt something sharp go through his right thigh.

Lucien twisted the long ornate dagger as it went into Dean’s thigh just to see the man scream. “No, but I’ll make sure you live long enough to watch me as I skin your brother alive and then let my people feed off of him after I’ve ripped my brother’s head off,” he snarled, reaching for the gag again to keep the man quiet but before he used it he moved his fingers through the blood seeping up through Dean’s jeans to wipe it over his lips and cheek with a smile.

“Your own blood with my drugs in it won’t taste as good as mine will if I choose to turn you but it’ll get you used to the taste for later,” he quickly secured the gag while opening the IV with the drug in it fully so Dean would get the full dose in a much higher quantity than he had been receiving. “Pity you won’t live to hear your little brother scream for you.”

Dean tried to jerk but now even the slightly move caused the blade to sink in deeper and he knew he’d bleed out probably this time but it was the warm, blurry sensation building in his body that warned him that he probably wouldn’t see Sam again anyway because he’d kill himself before going down this road again.

A sudden explosion rocked the basement and Dean’s mind shot right to Sam as he felt himself being dragged under again with a bitter helplessness that he hadn’t felt in years.

Following the pickup through the clearly deserted old town, Sam had slowed the Impala down a little as he drove up a road to what appeared to be a rundown old plantation.

Sam knew a trap when he seen one and wondered just when the other shoe would drop…a second before a section of road blew up just after the pickup passed it.

“Shit!” Sam slammed on the breaks and swerved the car off the road, wincing as his head hit the wheel at the sudden stop. “This sucks.”

Ahead of him, the hunter could see Benny climbing out of the truck and while the vampire looked more pissed than anything else Sam doubted if he’d noticed the dozen or so leather clad vampires gathering around to surround him.

“Damn it, this is why I hate these things,” he muttered, climbing out of the Impala only to react on pure gut instinct and ducked in time to avoid the long sword that slashed over his head. “Really? Vampires with swords? Really?”

“Our lord just wants his traitor brother, human,” the vampire with the sword spoke with a slight accent as he easily twirled the blade in his hand like an expert while tracking Sam’s every step. “He says we can play with you before he decides how he wants you to die.”

Sam’s hand had moved to pull the machete out as he tried to get some space to move but wasn’t expecting the soft ground to give way under his weight suddenly and swore under his breath when he had to drop the blade to catch himself, feeling his knee twist in glaring pain. “Shit, shit, shit!”

“Oh, don’t worry about a little pain, boy,” the vampire smiled, moving his eyes just enough to let Sam know this had gotten worse. “I promise by the time we’re done with you that you’ll be begging for death.”

“Wanna bet?” he blocked out the pain to start to push himself up only to feel something crash down on the back of his still sore head and cried out as his injured shoulder took a hit. “I’m not so easy to kill, asshole,” he warned, twisting in the grasp of another lunging vampire to grab the machete but before he could swing it a boot to the knee took his back down. “Too much of a coward to face me one on one?”

Kicking out again until Sam was gasping in pain, the sword carrying vamp nodded as three other of his nest buddies gathered around to grab the young man’s shoulders to keep him still as he lightly ran the tip of the blade down his chest.

“Too much fun this way, boy,” he smiled, fangs showing plainly as he lifted the sword. “Maybe I’ll start with your arms and go from there.”

Pinned to the ground on his knees, the pain in the right knee kept Sam from twisting free but he still fought the strength of the others as he watched that light of the moon reflect on the blade as it slashed down toward his body and could feel the pain even before it struck…

“Sam!”

 

**TBC**


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for some language and a little violence but nothing too serious.

** Chapter Five **

****

****

 

“Sam!”

Sam Winchester caught sight of the blade as it went to slash down toward his body and with a surge of adrenaline, he pulled his one arm free to that the vampire holding it fell forward to receive the blow and he pushed himself back to try to dislodge the others.

The hunter was moving out of instinct to not only save his own life but to save his brother’s because Sam did not intend to lose Dean like this.

He heard an enraged scream and felt his knee start to buckle just as a hand to the back pushed him farther out of the way while the sound of steel hitting steel was heard.

“Can you still fight?” Benny could tell that Sam’s knee was hurting by the way the boy was trying to keep his weight on his left leg but it was that shoulder wound that he also knew could be an issue.

“Do I have a choice?” Sam had picked up his machete as he finally managed to get to his feet, still a little surprised that the vampire had stepped in.

“Not really,” Benny shrugged, swinging the blade to take out another lunging vamp while the sword carrying one glared at him. “You stick close, Sam. We’ll get to Dean as soon as this lot is handled.”

Sam was about to offer a short and pithy reply to that but kept his mouth shut in favor of focusing his attention and strength on the few vampires that decided he was easy meat. “Go.”

Still keeping his eye on the sword carrying vampire, Benny swung his head back to look at that direction. “What?” he could see a half a dozen vampires trying to surround the younger Winchester while another three were eyeing him. “Sam?”

“Take care of them then go for Dean. I’ll catch up when I can,” Sam didn’t add the ‘if I can’ part out loud since he figured that might start a disagreement and he could only split his attention so many ways. “Benny, go get my brother.”

“Dean’ll literally take my head with his hands if I leave you surrounded by…” Benny moved back to avoid a sloppy lunge before using his blade to cut down the number of foes by another few fallen heads.

“You think the boss’ll keep the human alive for much longer, Benny?” the sword carrying vampire smiled, nodding to the others with him. “Take care of the human but don’t kill him. Lucien wants him to die in front of his brother. He wants you personally.”

Shifting his attention back to the main foe, the vampire eyed the sword then his machete. “I think you’ve been watchin’ too many samurai movies, Alex. I’m surprised you’ve lasted this long,” he heard the cry of pain from behind him and swore under his breath. “Dean alive?”

“Alive, yes. Drugged and bleeding? Oh, most definitely,” Alex had been Lucien Lafitte’s second in command for more than fifty years and he planned to be there when he killed Benny since he was confident his skills were much more than whatever the other vampire had. “He wants you and the boy to see him before he kills you both.”

“Doubtful that’s happening, man,” Benny leaned back to avoid the slash that would’ve ripped his stomach open had it connected then brought up the machete to try to block the next blow when he looked over at the next sound to see Sam fall to the ground. “Sam!”

“Even a hunter can be overwhelmed if the odds are against him,” Alex remarked, twisting easily to swing the blade at a distracted Benny. “Just like you can be distracted by watching a mortal about to…what?”

Benny might have been distracted and he knew the odds of this going badly but that didn’t mean he was too distracted to get killed by a young upstart.

“The fancy sword crap might work on the humans or your little band of drugged out vamps but it don’t impress me none, Alex,” he told him, gripping the wrist holding the blade tightly while twisting it with enough strength that bones broke. “Especially when I’ve got other places to be.”

The machete moved in a blur and he was barely aware of it slicing through until he heard the sound of a head hitting the ground. “Hey, Sammy? You need a hand?”

“It’s…ugh…Sam and I said no,” Sam rolled on the ground, kicking out with his left leg to dislodge a knife wielding vampire. “Go…find Dean. I’m…fine.”

Fine seemed to be an mild underestimate since there were still four vampires ganging up on Sam but as Benny took a step towards that fight he pulled back.

He knew Lucien and really wanted to handle that mess as much as possible before Sam could get there. “You watch yourself and catch up, y’hear?” he caught the short nod as a blade flashed and a vampire went down screaming as his arm was sliced off. “Sam?”

“Just get to Dean!” Sam snapped, feeling his knew want to buckle as he finally got to his feet again to eye the remaining vampires while knowing there were probably more. “Benny!” he shouted. “You find him, you get him the hell out even if I’m not there yet and…tell him I said…I’m sorry.”

The tone almost made the vampire turn back but he knew it wouldn’t be much longer before Lucien figured out the battle was not going the way he planned it and that would place Dean’s life in more danger and his promise to his meant was important he figured actually saving the hunter was a bit more vital.

Sam didn’t watch Benny slip away even though he couldn’t prevent the slight shudder now that he was alone and facing several pissed off and clearly hyped up vampires.

To Sam, saving Dean was more important and while he hoped he could pull this off and get to his brother he also wasn’t sure if either he or Dean would be up to dealing with the aftereffects of this one much less dealing with Shane Morrison.

He hoped if the worst happened and he did die here fighting vampires that the hunter would get smart and not try to mess with Dean because Sam would much rather die thinking his brother hated him for just not looking for him and not for anything else.

“So, boys…how do you want to do this?” he asked casually, not even aware of how much like his brother that question sounded like as he reached down while still watching the assembling vampires closely to pick up another blade.

Sam felt pain in his knee and in his shoulder as he was forced to put too much weight on both but grunted as something hit him in the back and he felt things start to black out, fighting the urge to just let this happen as he thought of his brother.

“No. It’s not…that simple,” he gritted, catching the blade in the dirt to use as leverage while slashing the other up in almost desperation but still felt the white hot pain of something hard crash into the back of his head and felt himself fall.

Dean’s voice, memories and pain all racked up as Sam tried to stay conscious but felt blackness reign as a heavy foot came down over his head.

** Inside the plantation: **

“Ah, the sounds of a fight going exactly like I planned,” Lucien Lafitte smiled as he listened to what he could only hear. “It won’t be long before we both get to see our brothers…though yours won’t be alive for much longer.”

Lucien had been waiting years to have this shot of revenge at Benny. Oh, not for turning him. No, he actually was quite happy that he’d been turned.

His hatred came more from the fact that Benny had left him soon after and had destroyed his first nest. He’d watched as his own brother destroyed his family…most of their family since Lucien had wasted no time in turning more of his own kin.

He couldn’t deny that he’d had a good life since being turned. He enjoyed what he did to others. He enjoyed seeing how far he could press the humans or how soon after being drugged and pulled off of it did they break and beg for death or his kind of life.

Glancing down at his captive now, he frowned a bit. He wanted the boy at least semi-awake to see both his brother and so-called friend dragged in and he wanted to watch him as he ripped his little brother’s heart out before dealing with his own traitorous sibling but as he looked he noticed Dean’s breathing was shifting between erratic and shallow.

He supposed between the loss of blood from being fed on to what he’d lost from the dagger still stuck in his thigh that Dean had slipped into shock.

Lucien gazed at the nearly empty drug vial he’d attached to the one IV tube and briefly wondered if the drug cocktails might have finally caused the human to slip into a coma.

Dean had been the first person in his long memory to resist the drugs for this long on top of losing so much blood and that earned him a small amount of respect.

At least enough that when he killed him he may not draw it out, though right then he decided he wanted him awake for this final moment.

“Wake up now, boy,” he bent down to find the correct nerve in Dean’s neck that he knew would bring him around, just like he knew the agony of squeezing right there, on top of several bite marks, should serve his purpose well enough and smiled as the muffled scream. “I need you awake for this part of the festivities,” he explained.

Dean partly wished the bastard would just kill him before his body started rejecting the drugs or he lost more blood since the last thing in the world he wanted was to die in front of Sam but it was plain even in this hazy state of mind that the cocky vampire didn’t want him dead just yet.

Wondering if his body was numb was shock, blood loss or being ties in the same position since he’d first woken up here, Dean still wanted to fight but didn’t have the strength much less any way to even offer a well phrased insult since this time the vampire hadn’t removed the gag so all he could do was try to glare.

Though he realized that even his eyes were working against him as things kept going blurry then bright and he hoped it was a concussion.

“You’re wondering why I don’t kill you? The simple answer to that is I want my brother to see you die but before that I want you to see _your_ brother killed,” he crouched down to tilt Dean’s head back to watch his eyes and gave a slow smile that was very much like the one Benny could use at times.

“I want you to watch him as I rip his heart out right here in front of you, Dean,” Lucien let his fingers run down Dean’s neck. “I would turn you just to make you kill him but I make it a habit never to turn anyone I can’t control. Plus, the rule among the community is that no vampire is allowed to turn a Winchester. It seems you boys made an impression on our ‘Father’…or he thinks either one of you would be too lethal as a vampire.”

Dean could’ve smirked about that but didn’t have the energy at the moment though he made a note to send the Alpha vamp a gift basket for that little order…assuming he lived to get out of this.

“Of course, he didn’t say I couldn’t kill you boys,” Lucien smiled again, dropping his hand to the blood soaked jeans where the dagger still resided to squeeze and laughed in enjoyment at the pain he caused before looking up at a sound. “Alex, is it over?”

Expecting to hear the voice of his long time comrade, the blond vampire frowned a bit when he glanced down as something hit the floor and he watched the bloody head roll across the stone floor to hit his foot. “No.”

“It appears to me as if your friend kinda lost his head,” Benny stepped into the room, dark eyes grim as they looked at his brother but got darker the moment he took in his friend. “I survived decades in Purgatory and you seriously thought a few drugged up vamps and one with an ego worse than yours could kill me? Luc, how much of your own drugs have you been smokin’ over the years?”

Benny had suspected what he’d be walking into but seeing Dean like this told him that Lucien had taken his torture art up a few notches since the last time they’d seen once another.

Briefly meeting the hunter’s glassy eyes, he nodded slightly but didn’t miss the question he could still see plainly in Dean’s gaze. To avoid it, he switched his own look back to his snarling brother. “Let him go now, Luc. I’m here and Dean’s hot nothin’ to do with this.”

Enraged at seeing his brother standing there while the head of his oldest made vampire was on the floor, Lucien’s eyes flashed in rage.

“You think I’ll let the hunter live?” he sneered, standing to face Benny. “I want you to watch as I kill him, brother. This human you’ve grown so attached to it seems,” he glanced between them to consider. “Where’s his brother, Benny?” he asked curiously, smiling as the way the other vampire’s face shifted subtly. “Ah, so much for loyalty then.”

“Sam can take care of himself,” Benny replied, silently hoping so at least because there was no mistaking the growing look of unease Dean had now. “This is between you and me, Luc. You hate me, little brother? Fine, but you let Dean go now and we can have it out.”

“Oh, I could let him go but between the blood he’s lost and the drugs, he’ll never survive the withdrawal on top of his weakened system,” Lucien grinned, managing to grip a handful of short hair to jerk his captive’s head back to expose his neck. “Tell me something, Benny…have you ever tasted him?”

Narrowing his eyes, Benny took a step but held back as his friend’s head was jerked back and not even the gag could muffle the pain Dean was in right then. “No,” he replied tightly, taking in the dried blood, bruises, bite marks, the IVs as well as the smell of fresh blood and it took a lot of willpower to keep his temper in check. “He’s not one of your toys, Lucien. No, I ain’t tellin’ you again. Let Dean go.”

“You’re not telling me anything anymore, brother,” Lucien returned, watching his brother closely as he held Dean’s head more to the side to expose the main vein in the side if his neck. “You should taste him now. His blood’s hot and sweet normally but with every extra I’ve added…it’s nearly mind blowing.”

Because he’d been Sam more this time Benny hadn’t fed like he normally would have which he now realized was a mistake because just being in this room, the smell of blood, was making it very hard for him to keep the fangs in.

“Let. Him. Go,” he gritted, debating on if he could make a move on his brother before Dean could be hurt worse when he jerked a head and felt his stomach drop. “Shit.”

“Ahh, the final piece of this puzzle has arrived,” Lucien laughed, stepping away from Dean to nod to his nest member who dragged a seemingly limp and unconscious Sam Winchester into the room. “Is he dead?”

Seeing Benny but not Sam had worried Dean while a small part of him had hoped his brother had taken his advice and stayed out of this.

Noticing the way his friend from Purgatory had started to avoid his eyes caused his concern to notch up because while Dean knew Sam could handle vampires fine he also knew his little brother couldn’t take on a large group by himself and swore to kick Benny’s ass if he left Sam on his own to do that.

Now as he watched as his brother’s bloody and mud caked body was tossed to the floor in front of him, all the pain and injuries, the drug induced lethargy didn’t seem to make much of a difference as he went from barely conscious to anxious, worried, freaked out and finally to pissed in a blink of an eye.

A single look even through blurry eyes told Dean that Sam was hurt. He couldn’t see his face by the way he was laying but there appeared to be blood seeping through his jacket around his right shoulder as well as other places that didn’t seem covered in mud.

The gag muffled the shout but it was plain to Benny that Dean was yelling Sam’s name and he could feel the heat in the hazy green eyes the second they lifted to pin him, the accusation clear and loud.

“See, this is what I planned,” Lucien spread his arms, seeming not to notice that he only had one vampire of his own nest still around. “You killed my first nest, Benny. You killed our family because you disapproved of what I’d done and now I’ll show you how that feels as you watch the agony your friend suffers as I kill his family and then I’ll kill him.”

Dean was going through a vicious litany of curse words toward both vampires right at the moment and was having serious flashbacks to when he’d been used as bait by Gordon to lure Sam into a trap.

Another time he’d been helpless to protect his brother and despite all the crap he’d been giving Sam lately a part of Dean still felt that urge to shield and protect Sam.

He was so kicking Benny’s ass for not looking after his brother and for the first time in more than a day Dean tried to struggle in the ropes and chains but railed silently when he merely discovered most of his body numb and useless as he could only watch Sam’s still form and offer muffled curses and threats.

“I want you alive and conscious for this, boy. Don’t make me change my mind,” Lucien’s fist flew out in lightning speed to crack against Dean’s head to warn him to be silent then he was whirling to grab Benny’s wrist, shoving him back. “First I deal with you. Then the humans.”

Benny could hear the sound of Sam’s breathing and heartbeat and knew both sounded fine but didn’t like how unresponsive he appeared to be right then.

Taking advantage of when the younger vampire turned his attention back to Dean, he raised the machete in the hopes of ending this quickly but still wasn’t surprised when the attack was blocked and he was tossed across the room.

Grabbing on to his brother, Benny made certain it use the momentum to pull Lucien away from the Winchesters while also keeping a keen eye on the other lone vampire in the room since he was the most vital threat to the boys at the moment.

“You didn’t have to kill Elizabeth or hurt Dean to get at me, Luc,” he twisted easily to free himself before using his own fist as a weapon. “You knew I was back so all you had to do was find me.”

“More fun this way,” Lucien replied, confident enough that he could handle this that he stopped paying attention to the room. “I wanted to see you suffer and since it’s clear you still have too many emotions, that you actually care for humans, I figured this would be the best way to do it.”

He offered a sneer over his shoulder to notice that his vampire was licking his lips as it approached what he merely considered as food now. “Want to watch your friend when I allow Gerald to use the boy as dinner?” he chuckled, ducking under a close cut by the machete to grab Benny’s arm in a tight grip to try to pin it behind him. “Gerald, drain the younger one to the brink then bring him to me.”

“Damnit, Luc!” Benny snarled, swearing that the younger man as he tensed to try to get loose while using his free hand to slip into his pocket. “You hate me for what I did? Well, I’ve hated myself since the day I made the mistake and turned you. If I woulda known your first act would be to turn half the family I never would’ve and left you to rot in a jail cell.”

“A killer with a conscious but then I hear you haven’t really been killin’ for your food these days,” Lucien leaned in close. “Maybe you should be the one to rip the boy’s heart out since you and his big brother are so close. Look at ‘em, Benny. I have hunters at my mercy; the great and fabled Winchesters about to die at my orders and powerless to stop it.”

Benny promised himself the first thing he was doing was at least breaking his brother’s jaw before he killed the son of a bitch.

He recalled the boy liked the sound of his own voice but that, like everything else, must have increased after being turned into a vampire.

Keeping his body tense, he blocked out most of the raving to slide a look over across the room and finally locked eyes with Dean.

Benny easily recognized the shock and pain in the green eyes but he also caught the rage, anger, and fear there as well. He knew only too well how much Dean hated to be helpless and guessed that feeling was increased if Sam was in danger and he couldn’t prevent it.

He also noticed what neither Lucien nor Dean had yet and tried to catch Dean’s eyes but the kid was close to panicking as the greasy looking young vampire neared Sam’s body.

“Yeah, you caught the Winchesters, Luc,” he agreed, keeping his tone level and calm while finally getting Dean to watch him as he gave the slightly glance down before returning to his eyes with the same smile he’d offered the man upon their first meeting. “Trouble with that is, you’ve probably done the same thing that everyone else has whose tried this has. You underestimated them.”

“What?” the blond vampire frowned but didn’t notice anything amiss as his last remaining nest member knelt down to grab Sam’s unruly hair. “You mean, Dean’s underestimated his brother’s ability to save him.”

“Oh, no, that’s one thing I doubt if anyone could underestimate, Luc,” Benny smirked. “Cause the one thing that I learned from this little mess is that you don’t mess with Dean without pissing off his baby brother and that’s just bad for you.”

The pain and burning in his veins had increased with how much he was struggling to try to free himself but something in the vampire’s eyes had him pausing and that’s when he felt it or thought he felt something like a light touch on his lower leg…the leg shielded from view by the way Sam fell when dropped.

Dean fought to control his breathing since he could only get in air through his nose but it was hard when he quickly let his gaze drop then lift back up before anyone else caught on and he tried to make out what his ever so creative little brother was trying to sign without being obvious about it and would’ve collapsed if he’d been able to when he made it out finally.

‘ _I’m okay_.’

“Gerald will drain this boy to the brink of death and then I’ll take his heart out all before killing your friend in front of you, brother,” Lucien continued to speak, jerking Benny’s head back to sneer in his face when he scowled at the smirk he saw there. “What? You find this funny that you failed to protect your friend’s brother and now I will…”

“Hell, no because Dean’ll kick my ass for letting Sam get bruised on this job,” Benny replied easily enough, clenching the hand he had in his pocket to grasp what was there. “Find it funny that as well as you tried to plan this whole thing out…that you didn’t figure Sammy boy there would fake unconsciousness just to get between you and his brother.”

Benny watched as what he was saying slowly dawned on Lucien then when he felt him start to release him to move forward, he pulled his hand out to jab the needle he’d pocketed earlier when he was getting the medical kit out of the Impala’s trunk into his brother’s arm but only used half of the contents, turning to pushed the startled vampire against the wall.

“Now you can watch, Luc,” he glanced back to see the strung out vampire too absorbed in his meal to pay any attention to what was happening around him. “Second thought, little brother…you don’t need to watch. I just need to fix the first mistake I ever made. Sorry,” he used the rest of the needle of dead man’s blood but reached for the machete to make certain this was fully over.

Gerald, the last remaining vampire of the nest, had all his fangs bared when he reached down to grab a handful of hair before sinking the teeth into the younger hunter’s neck when he blinked at a pinch to his side.

Looking down, he stared dumbly at the syringe still stuck in his side when the body under him moved and he only had a flash of pain from the dead blood in the needle to notice the blade of the knife that took his head off to drop on the floor.

“That’s for kicking me in the head,” Sam muttered, managing a brief glare at the thug vamp before looking to see if the bastard who’d started this mess was being dealt with.

As soon as he saw the blade in Benny’s hand along with the empty syringe on the floor, he was no longer interested and was dropping to the floor beside his brother. “Dean? Hold on. I’ll get you loose.”

Dean had no clue how Sam had decapitated the last vampire without getting blood on either of them and right then he didn’t give a damn. He had more important things to worry about.

“Shit, shit…this is bad,” Sam was talking under his breath or so he thought at he took in his brother’s bruised, bloodied, sore body when his eyes landed on the dagger and felt his stomach clench. “Dean? I…” he had to blink a second to clear his eyes.

Sam hadn’t fully had to fake unconsciousness because he had been kicked in the head and had been on the verge of passing out until the damn vampire jerked on his injured shoulder but now he knew he needed to focus to free his brother and get the hell out of this place.

Hoping his hands weren’t shaking as much as he thought they were, Sam’s first move was to remove the gag because even if he got yelled out for not following orders he wanted to hear Dean’s voice to reassure himself that he was alive still.

As soon as the gag came out, Sam noticed the dried blood and was pretty sure all the color drained from his face while his eyes shot to his brother’s but couldn’t bring himself to ask.

“Mine,” Dean managed to get out of dry and cracked lips and a mouth that felt like a desert by this point and figured by the unspoken relief he seen on Sam’s face that his brother had been afraid he’d been turned…again. “Sam…”

“Hang on and I’ll get these out and have you free in a second,” Sam’s attention was locked on what he was doing once he noticed the three IVs and wished he could kill the bastard again for what Dean had gone through and probably what he would be going through soon. “As soon as we’re outta here, I’ll get that bleeding stopped and give you some water and…”

Dean knew he was in shock and that would get worse once his system started coming off the drugs but as he listened to and watched Sam, he suspected his little brother was also more than a little bit in shock himself.

He heard more than seen Sam’s switchblade as it opened to begin on the ropes and began to mention the chains only to hear the sharp oath that made him raise his eyebrows because it took a lot to make Sam swear like that or at least get him to swear like that aloud.

“Really? Chains and a multi lock on each one on top of the damn ropes?” the younger Winchester shook his head, cursing viciously as he took this in since he wasn’t sure if he could pick the damn things in the time limit he’d set himself. “Bleeding and drugging you wasn’t enough? He thought you were going to Houdini your way outta this crap?”

Benny had been surprised not to feel that much of anything as he watched the head of his brother fall. He expected some sort of brief feeling of grief but only felt relief that it was over.

Glancing over when he heard Sam swearing, the vampire started to cross when he picked up the way Sam’s whole body went rigid at his footsteps and lifted a curious eyebrow.

Dean had felt Sam’s reaction and he’d also caught the way the knife shifted. Recognizing the signs easily, he gave a slight shake of his head as if to tell Benny to hold off before coming close to them right now or until he got a better handle on how Sam was right then.

He’d guessed that since both brother and vampire had made it here in one piece that some type of truce had been worked out but since Sam was clearly hurt in some way and also close to a panic attack over his condition it told Dean that his brother wasn’t going to let anyone close to him right then.

“Sam,” he tried again only to once again have his words run over in Sam’s attempts to get him free and slowly Dean did free the ropes holding his arms and wrists loosen enough that he was able to begin to try to move them but cursed the chains. “Hey…”

“Almost there, De’n,” Sam sounded distracted as he tried to pick the locks, unaware of when he dropped a letter in Dean’s name. “Don’t move or you’ll cause the leg to bleed more and…”

Leaning his head against the chair, Dean closed his eyes briefly before opening them to see that Benny had slowly moved closer. He recognized the silent apology in the vampire’s eyes but merely moved his head enough to indicate he was fine, which he wasn’t but he didn’t need to freak Sam out more than he already appeared to be.

“Sam…” he hissed a breath out as Sam accidently touched a bite mark and felt his brother go rigid before mumbling an apology and continuing to work. “Sam…keys to the locks,” he had to try to swallow a few times to get enough energy to go on. “Benny…has ‘em.”

“What?” Sam’s head came up to see two keys dangling in front of his face and he snatched them with all the patience that he had right then and that wasn’t much. “Hold on,” he found the key for the first set of locks and as soon as they unlatched he was pulling the chains away with a harsh curse. “Okay, I’ll get the others off your legs in a second and hey…!”

As soon as he felt the chains come loose, Dean gritted his teeth to get his stiff limbs to move but then he was reaching out to grip Sam’s arms to do something that clearly surprised both brothers because getting pulled against Dean’s chest in a hug that was of both relief and concern was the last thing Sam expected.

“You…okay?” Dean asked, biting his lip as his muscles decided to object to moving so suddenly but he managed to keep Sam still long enough to feel him tense at the question.

“Yeah,” Sam hedged on that one because he wasn’t about to tell Dean the truth of anything right then. He seemed to hesitate a moment before reaching his arms around to carefully return the gesture, being cautious to not cause his brother more pain than he must already be in. “Dean…I’m…”

“Let…Benny get the…IVs out,” Dean broke in suddenly, letting the hug go to ease back until he was sitting with his bruised back against the front of the chair as his legs were finally freed and he felt like screaming as circulation returned to them after straightening them out.

Sam tensed at that, frowning. “Dean, I can get them and that blade out,” he argued, refusing to let it hurt that Dean seemed to be doing exactly what he feared he would. “You’re bleeding and…”

“Been bleeding since I woke up it seems like,” Dean returned, wanting to pass out but fighting it as he forced himself to meet Sam’s eyes and try to ignore the hurt there. “I…”

“Hey, how about you go pull that thing he calls a car up closer to the door so we won’t have to carry his heavy ass out?” Benny cut in quickly, wanting to break his friend’s words off before he said something even more stupid.

Hazel eyes went back and forth between the two, Sam wanted to argue and refuse but he didn’t want to upset his brother more right then. He also knew he should’ve been expecting Dean to push him away.

“Unless you’re gonna trust me with the keys to it,” Benny finished, covering his grin at Dean’s next sound which was mostly derisive. “You get the car up here and find him a blanket or something while I get him out, okay? Sam…”

“Yeah, fine,” Sam nodded shortly, looking away before either his brother or the vampire could catch his expression. He also waited until he’d turned away to brush a hand over his stinging eyes. “I’ll…go get the car and…stuff just…I’m sorry I wasn’t with you when this happened or…got here sooner.”

Dean blinked at that but he sighed after Sam had gone to pull the Impala up only to wince when a hand slapped him the back of the head. “Hey! What the hell?”

“Brother, I’m overlooking a lot of that due to the pain, the shock, the drugs, blood loss and any other dozen things wrong with you right now but damn it, man…that kid’s one wrong move or word away from bolting and I don’t really think you want that,” Benny declared, kneeling down to reach for the IVs.

The fresh blood made his senses twitch but he pushed it down to concentrate as he pulled all three thin needles out while handing his friend a piece of shirt he’d torn into strips, without mentioning it was Dean’s own.

“I…didn’t want him…here for this,” Dean sighed, body relaxing more now that he was loose and recognizing the signs of shock setting in faster than he liked. “He hurt?”

Turning his head to both hide the small grin at the concern he heard despite how Dean had just acted and so he could avoid seeing the blade slide free while clamping a hand down over the wound to try to stop the freely flowing blood.

“Probably got the hell kicked outta him by those vamps but some guy shot him back at the motel,” Benny squeezed tighter when he felt the leg move, reaching for the other strip of shirt to tie around Dean’s thigh for the moment. “You know your little brother’s got a helluva lot of issues, mainly with me and you and what you haven’t told him about stuff?”

“It’s stuff he doesn’t need to know about,” Dean whispered, wishing for something to drink so he could at least know if his dry mouth was due to thirst or worry about Sam. “You shoulda left him…”

“Some asshole hunter tried to kill him, Dean. Your boy’s hurt, scared for you, jealous as all get out over me and pretty damn sure you hate him for not looking for you,” Benny rolled his eyes as he took his jacket off to help Dean slid into it for the moment to try to counter some of the shock. “He’s got no clue what happened in Purgatory and I think you ain’t got no clue what the hell happened to him while you were gone. So what they hell are you doin’ now pushing him away?”

Thinking to what Garth had said before all of this started and what Benny was saying also caused Dean to wonder just what the hell Sam hadn’t come clean with him about but since he’d pretty much shut his brother out again and had said some crap stuff that he knew hurt Sam Dean guessed he couldn’t throw stones about that right then.

“I sent him outta here…cause I…he’s not gonna be able to handle this on his own,” he could feel the warning signs of withdrawal starting even now and he was hoping to hang on until they got someplace more stable. “Benny…he tell you anything about…me and…the drugs?”

Recalling how upset Sam had been upon learning that more than likely Dean would be drugged, the vampire shook his head while moving to try to get the hunter as much to his feet as he could right then. “Nope. He just said you couldn’t be drugged. Guessin’ there’s something in your past you didn’t share?”

“Somethin’ like that,” Dean gasped, feeling his legs nearly buckle from both being too weak and not moving them in several days. “I…was…eighteen the last time but…a lot’s happened since then and…I…I don’t wanna hurt him,” he sighed, figuring the last month or so of fighting had already done that. “More…than I have. Need to get him clear before…”

“No way, brother,” Benny refused that idea. He’d listened to Sam, had gotten a good enough read on the younger man to know that if Dean did what he was thinking of that Sam would run and more than likely get hurt worse by whatever the hell he was running from. “Dean, I know you want to protect him from whatever is it you think’s gonna happen but I’m tellin’ you right now, you shove Sam away and he’s gonna go off the rails cause he’s runnin’ from something. You seriously tell him I was a better brother than he was to you?”

Dean blamed the groan on the pain he was in and not for the actual reproachful tone of voice from the Cajun vampire. “Kinda…pissed that he didn’t…you hit me again and as soon as I can see straight again I’ll kick your ass,” he warned, feeling the grip shift and suspecting what for. “You know why I fought to get back and…”

“You ever stop to think that maybe something happened to make him quit lookin’ for you?” Benny countered, having to pause before trying to get the man outside so Dean’s breathing could level off again. “He’s got some interesting scars that only look about a year old. Take it from someone who learned to read people even before getting turned like this, your little brother thinks you walk on water and he wants me dead every time I slip up and call you ‘brother’.”

The hunter understood the implications of that and also figured if Sam was hiding scars that would explain why his brother hadn’t let him see him without a shirt on since they began hunting again and Dean felt like hitting himself.

The signs had been there. All of Sam’s little unknown tells that only Dean would see or understand that his little brother had been hiding stuff or maybe not telling him everything about the year Dean was gone and he’d been so bitter and on edge that he’d bought the lies at face value.

“I’ll…handle it…if I make it outta this but,” Dean put a shaky hand out to stop his friend from opening the door. “Need you to promise…one more thing.”

“Now that last promise is gonna end up with me dead if I piss that kid off more than he is,” Benny sighed upon realizing that the hunter was serious despite how bad hurt he was. “What?”

Dean could hear the purr of the Impala’s engine and he could hear Sam pacing around the car as if wondering if he shouldn’t just run and wished he had the time to settle all of this now. “If…if this gets too bad or he can’t control me enough for me to come down from this…if I go to hurt him in any way…you swear to me that you’ll put me down.”

“Say that again?” Benny stared into glassy, wider green eyes as if not hearing him right. “You want me to…Dean, I know you’ve had your brains scrambled but did Luc kick a few too many loose?” he stared at the man. “That kid out there would have me dead before…”

“I’ll tell Sam but you promise me,” Dean needed that before he’d go close to his brother because unlike what his Dad had believed or even what Sam might think he actually did have more than a few of his memories from that time when he was eighteen and strung out after that damn cult case nearly ruined him. “Promise me, Benny or I’d just as soon bleed out here than risk Sam.”

The vampire could see Sam pacing before squaring his shoulders and heading for the house and he took a long moment to consider if this was just the shock and pain talking but no, he could tell that Dean was still in control and perfectly serious.

“Fine, but you better come outta this cause I don’t relish going back to Purgatory because you flipped out and Sam killed me because I killed you,” he agreed with a disgruntled sigh. “Dean…y’know I’m sorry this happened. Luc…he shouldn’t have…”

“Been there, done that,” Dean tried to wave it away but cried out as his right leg buckled just as the door opened and he locked eyes with the shocked hazel ones of his little brother. “You scratch my car?”

Sam had nearly gasped when he pulled the door open and had to grab for his brother before he fell forward before the question dawned on him. “Umm, no,” he responded, wanting to help Dean to where he’d parked but leery about making the offer. “Can…can I take him?”

He aimed the question toward Benny who merely cocked his head a little to silently say this wasn’t his spot but still Sam didn’t move until he heard his brother’s reply.

“Sammy,” just the slightest use of the nickname that he still only allowed his brother to use made Sam relax a little and he slid an arm around Dean’s waist while trying to support his weight without letting on that his shoulder and knee were in agony.

“You get him clear so I can torch this place,” Benny had never planned on following the Winchesters since he knew Sam wouldn’t want him to but he also understood that the younger hunter was hurt more than he was letting on right then. “Got a place to go?”

Sam had been debating that for hours since he figured how Dean would be and also knowing they’d need to be something secure and private since he was afraid this would get loud before it was over. “Bobby and Pastor Jim had that old fishing cabin down around here,” he felt more than seen Dean’s nod as he helped him toward the Impala. “It’s the closest place that I know can handle this.”

“It’s…fine,” Dean really just wanted to curl up and sleep but he refused the back seat when Sam reached for the rear door and jerked his head forward. “Shotgun.”

“But you should…” Sam began but cut off with a frown, opening the door to help his brother ease down onto the seat. “Is it still bleeding or can it wait until we get there?”

Merely lifting a hand to make an ‘okay’ sign, Dean let his hand fall while closing his eyes but pried one eye back open to look. “You’ll need Benny for this.”

Ready to argue that point, Sam’s shoulder decided to erupt in pain and he hoped he hadn’t pulled any stitches before he held out a hastily scrawled address. “I GPS’d it and it’s a couple hours away from here but not too hard to find,” he glanced down to see that Dean’s eyes were closed again and reached for his wallet. “Can you get stuff? Food, medical supplies…other things if I…”

“I’ll handle it,” Benny nodded, surprised the boy was giving in this easily but figured it was because he thought Dean wanted him there rather than Sam. “You boys get going and I’ll catch up.”

Benny watched until the Impala was out of sight before going to his truck for a few cans of gas and also a blood pouch to take the edge that had been building for the past hour.

He knew Sam was bleeding again and the vampire hoped Dean pulled out of this because he sure didn’t like the thought of telling Sam about this last promise.

Dealing with Lucien and his nest had been the end to only one nightmare. Now came the part to see if his damn brother’s ultimate goal failed because he realized the reason Lucien had done so much to Dean was to hurt him bad enough so that he may not live.

“Purgatory wasn’t this complicated,” he decided, going to set the place on fire after he gathered up all the bodies to destroy the evidence while hoping Sam could handle this until he got there and nothing else happened in the meanwhile.

The silence in the Impala would have been maddening if Sam wasn’t focusing on driving as fast as he could without getting them picked up or wrecking every time his shoulder ached or his injured knee ached.

He’d pulled a blanket out of the backseat to lay over his brother while occasionally reaching over to lightly feel Dean’s wrist, which was raw and bloody from struggling in the heavy ropes, to feel his pulse and after about the seventeenth time of checking he released a shaky breath.

Sam knew Dean needed blood to replace what he’d lost but that required leaving his brother alone or with Benny to try to steal some, not to mention the other things they’d end up needing before the end of this.

He hoped he could get Dean cleaned up and some fluids into him before the worst of the withdrawals hit which brought on another bout of concern since Sam didn’t know what to do to help his brother this time.

Their Dad and Pastor Jim had mainly kept him away from Dean during the worst of it even though he could still hear the screams and curses all through Jim’s house but he hadn’t been allowed near his brother until it was mostly over.

Of course that didn’t mean Sam had listened because he’d snuck into the room one night because he wanted to at least be close to Dean but the sight he could still to this day remember terrified him so much that he’d slept in the Impala for two nights until their Dad figured out what he was doing and why.

“You’re…thinking so loudly it’s making my head…hurt.”

Jumping behind the wheel at the unexpected voice from beside him, Sam shot a glance over to see that while Dean’s eyes were still closed he was clearly awake. “You want some water?” he’d opened a bottle and had it sitting on the seat in case Dean had needed it. “Or the heater on? Or…”

“Water, God yes,” Dean winced as he had to force his hand to be steady to even hold the plastic bottle but managed two sips before even that tired him out. “You know…how to handle this?”

“I’ve stitched you up plenty of times before,” Sam knew that wasn’t what his brother meant but he wasn’t ready to have that talk yet. “Once I get your thigh stitched and we get some of those…bites cleaned up I’ll go try to steal some stuff or something to get you through until…”

A hand reaching out made him take one from the wheel to grasp it, chewing his lip at how cold and clammy Dean’s shaking hand felt already.

“Know…what I mean,” Dean coughed, glad he didn’t taste blood but not so glad when his stomach started to cramp. “You use the heavy stuff…in the trunk and…”

“You were tied up for days, Dean. I can’t tie to down this soon,” Sam argued, hating that vision because it had been the sight of his older brother tied to a bed in Pastor Jim’s house that still could give him nightmares. “I can handle it without…”

Dean made his hand tighten around Sam’s wrist to make his point. “This…ain’t like it was back then, Sammy. I won’t…know you and…with me still on edge from Purgatory…I…could hurt you if I’m not tied,” he was gasping in pain as his body suddenly decided to curl in on itself but he fought to push it back.

“You didn’t know me then either,” Sam retorted, but sighed and figured if Dean had anywhere close to his normal strength that his wrist would be bruised by the way it was being held. “Fine. I’ll tie you down but…I’m not leaving you alone…unless you don’t want me to be in there or you’d rather…”

“Sam, it’s not that I don’t want you in there or that I’d rather have someone else around me while I go outta my head on this crap that damn vamp shot me up with but…” Dean finally opened his eyes to look at his brother and didn’t miss the dried tear tracks on his face or the look of pain he couldn’t quite mask. “If…I lose it too much…I want you to back off and let Benny handle it.”

The hurt was there that once again Dean was choosing someone else to depend on when something about the way he words that made him risk a longer look and felt his chest tighten. “What…are you saying?” he asked softly, silently starting a mantra to be wrong about what he feared. “Let Benny handle what, Dean?”

“Killing me.”

 

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Ducks* Yes, I know this was evil to leave it here and I promise I’ll update quicker because while Dean’s troubles are really just starting, Sam’s not out of the woods either.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I know next to little about drug withdrawal so any medical stuff is being used for purpose of fiction. Also, yeah. Dean may seem like a jerk at times but I promise it will get better as he slowly figures stuff out

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** Chapter Six **

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“‘ _Killing me_.’”

Those two little words had been playing themselves over in Sam Winchester’s head for the past five days and he never let them go, especially on those few times he let himself sleep and would have to allow his brother to be watched over by someone else.

The old fishing cabin that Bobby Singer owned with Jim Murphy was a bit larger than a simple fishing cabin deep in the bayou and for that Sam was thankful since it meant a bit more room. He didn’t think he could handle being right on top of a vampire that he still had issues with.

Though Sam was forced to admit that Benny came in handy for some things since the young hunter had been trying to figure out how to steal or borrow the medical stuff that Dean would need to recover from both his wounds and the lost blood.

He’d been close to speechless when the vampire finally arrived at the cabin, only about three hours behind the Winchesters, with not only necessary supplies like food, gas for the generator, candles and other vital stuff but he’d also brought several bags of blood in Dean’s type…not that Sam wanted to think too hard on how that detail had been known.

Also among the medical supplies were bandages, salve for the bite marks, bags of clear saline to keep Dean hydrated for what both Sam and Benny realized was going to be a long time of withdrawal and recovery and antibiotics.

Benny most kept to himself in the main part of the cabin or outside until he almost felt it was time to relieve Sam in his almost constant vigil in the back bedroom where he and Dean had agreed would be the best to put him.

This was one of the quiet times they seemed to go through now and while it near silence bothered Sam, he was also glad that they’d passed the point where all Dean did was scream, curse, fight both the ropes holding him to the bed or Sam himself when he tried to get close to him.

Turning from the window that would allow him to see the water where he and Dean would fish as kids if they came down here for any reason, Sam let his gaze fall on his brother much like it had since this stage of recovery began.

Dean was still pale despite the new blood he’d been given but Sam understood now it was due to a lack of nutrition since getting Dean to eat was next to impossible and what he had gotten in him had just come right back up.

The ride to the cabin had been more quiet and tense after Dean dropped it on him that he wanted Benny to kill him if things got to the point where he couldn’t be controlled or the symptoms got too bad.

Those two damn words still rang in his head and Sam recalled nearly wrecking the Impala in his haste to stop just to stare at his brother.

The fight had been brief, brutal, but to the point and it still left Sam feeling a mixture of hurt, anger, pain and fear because while the one side of his brain understood where Dean was coming from the other side of him, the little brother side, didn’t want to accept the possibility of having to step aside to let the vampire do what Dean wanted done.

Sam pushed that aside as he stepped to the bed to go through the routine of checking to be certain the heavy ropes were still tied securely to both keep Dean tied so that when he fought the pain of not having the drugs he’d been given and he tried to get free that he couldn’t.

They’d gotten to the cabin with enough time to spare that Sam had been able to clean most of the wounds and bruises his brother had gained from the nest of vampires, stitching the knife wound in his thigh and helping Dean take a brief but hot shower despite Sam’s argument that he needed to rest before his body started craving what was no longer there.

Dean had insisted and like usual he’d won the battle. Now as he let his fingers run back through his brother’s short hair and felt it sticky from sweat of both the heat and humidity of the cabin as well as the fever he’d spiked two days earlier, Sam understood.

His brother had wanted to wash away the pain, the dried blood, sweat and memories of being the vampires’ prisoner before he became a prisoner of his own body and mind.

Sam had resisted using the heavy ropes but again had given in to Dean’s demands and then had bit his tongue when his older brother, the one who would end up tied with them, had sat on the bed and given him instruction on how to run the ropes.

“‘ _I don’t remember being this way with you when you tied me down to ride out the last demon blood trip_ ,’” Sam could’ve kicked himself for thinking that much less saying it out loud since neither of them liked to remember that time in their lives.

“‘ _You weren’t. You were too far gone to notice that I was this same way with Cas and Bobby over you_ ,’” Dean shot back without any heat as he pulled the rope that would go over his waist before lifting his eyes. “‘ _Pull this tighter._ ’”

He had hated the moment when it became readily clear that the ropes would be needed and was glad that he’d given in, yet again, to Dean’s orders to tie him before the situation got bad because from the first moment Sam woke up to the sounds of his brother’s shouts and seen how much he was struggling against the ropes he knew that he’d never had gotten him restrained.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Sam wet the end of a wash cloth to gently wipe it over the bare skin of Dean’s arms since they’d both agreed he’d need a shirt on to try to cushion the one rope that was hooked around and under the bed in some system that Sam was sure he’d never figure out and really didn’t want to know where his brother had learned it.

Aside from the brief conversation in the Impala on the way here five days earlier, they hadn’t talked much and Sam wasn’t sure to be grateful for that or not.

The talk in the car had mostly been a fight over Dean’s decision to let Benny kill him if he didn’t snap out of the withdrawal or he got too violent.

It wasn’t a shock that his brother decided to have the vampire be the one to do that because on the one hand Sam knew Dean was fully aware that he’d never be able to kill him, not even in self-defense, while on the other one he figured with all of their problems Dean would know that Benny could do it without failing him again.

Once at the cabin their discussions were mostly centered around Sam cursing as he tried to clean and dress wounds and Dean giving matter of fact instructions on what to do once the withdrawal started and what not to do.

“‘ _Do not, under any circumstances, let me loose_ ,’” Dean had told him once, looking like he wanted to reach over the bed to touch Sam’s shoulder as he bent to hook the ropes to the headboard but pulled back at the last second. “‘ _I don’t care if I’m choking and turning blue. You do not untie me unless you’re damn certain the worst is over and then you don’t touch me_.’”

Sam had been hoping that his brother would stop pushing him away so much after this. He’d been hoping that Dean’s desire to keep him away from the vampire mess had just been a way to keep him out of danger and he really did want to believe what Benny had said to him that night but it was so hard when his brother’s gruff side just kept shoving him away and not letting him in.

He ran a finger over the bracelet he still wore and pushed down the brief burst of nausea that wanted to come from his own injuries as he continued to reclean and dress the worst bite marks that he could reach and do without possibly waking Dean.

Sam kept away from the IV line that was keeping fluids going into Dean and was relieved that he no longer needed blood even though he realized that it was the fresh blood and saline going in that had pushed the withdrawal to a head as well.

Moving a hand back up, Sam winced as his shoulder pulled and a quick glance over made him sigh. He’d pulled a couple stitches but hadn’t reported that to either Dean, who had asked him multiple times if he was hurt, or Benny, who probably already could tell he was bleeding again.

Watching Dean’s face like he started doing a few days ago for signs of pain or dreams which had become Sam’s way of telling when his brother would be waking up, he noticed that while Dean’s eyelids seemed to be slightly more active so far his still looked calm and he could only hope that meant that the worst of this would soon be over.

For the most part the withdrawal had gone down the same way it had when Dean was eighteen or as much as Sam recalled from what he’d heard.

He’d put up a brave front to fight the building pain for the first six or so hours before he began to strain against the ropes that held him tight by the wrists, ankles, over the waist and legs.

That’s when the fun kicked up because before it had been Pastor Jim and their Dad who got the brunt of the verbal abuse as Dean started off low with just asking to be let go or something to take the edge off.

When that didn’t work Dean got louder, more abrasive and a lot more creative in his threats and insults and while Sam had heard a lot out of his brother over the years, especially since his return from Purgatory, he had to admit that more than a few of the verbal jabs had hurt.

Though he knew that was the intent. To hurt him, make him angry enough to give in like he nearly always did to Dean only this time…this time Sam was aware that to help his brother he couldn’t give in to the abuse or threats or insults. He just had to take them while trying not to break in front of Dean.

Three times in the five days Benny had to step in to break up the verbal assault. Twice because Dean was clearly reliving his time in Purgatory and refused to allow Sam near him and his raggedly screams threats hadn’t made sense to the younger Winchester except to tell him there was a lot about his brother’s time down there that Dean was repressing.

The last time however Dean had just been lashing out viciously. Hurling every kind of insult, threat, or jab that he could think of right then at Sam and it was only when he began hitting below the proverbial belt with the hurtful words and Sam was having a hard time holding back any reaction that he felt the hand on his good shoulder.

“‘ _Take a walk, Sam. Time Dean cooled down and you’re too close to it now. Go on. Give me fifteen minutes with him_ ,’” the vampire’s eyes hadn’t left Dean as he was nudging Sam out of the room.

Sam had been torn between wanting to stick it out despite the tears he could feel coming or taking Benny’s advice to let things cool down. He’d known what Dean was doing because his brother knew all the tricks to get to him and it was for that reason that in the end he had left the room but only going so far as the kitchen to wipe his face.

Even right now Sam wasn’t sure what the hell had happened in the bedroom between Benny and Dean but fifteen minutes later when he’d exited, offering Sam the same easy going smile as he had the night they’d first met; Dean had calmed down a little or at least calmed down to the point where he’d offered a quiet apology when Sam went back in.

Truth be told, the apology actually scared Sam more than any of his brother’s worst outbursts because Dean hardly ever apologized or if he did it was usually because Bobby or someone was aiming a shotgun at him.

After that it seemed like they hit a pretty steady pattern of how things went. Dean would sleep between three of four hours at night with a quick forty five minute nap in the afternoon, long enough for Sam to grab something to eat, before the severe pain, shakes, convulsions and screaming would pick up for the rest of the time.

The first time Dean had started convulsing had terrified Sam because he wasn’t sure how to keep his brother from hurting himself. Being tied like he was prevent too much damage and all Sam could do was sit beside him and hold his head still while talking to him.

Sam was fairly certain he’d talked himself hoarse those first few times and he hadn’t been aware of the tears that had fallen until in one of his more lucid moments Dean had called him a girl and it had been so nearly normal for them that Sam had nearly broken down and told his brother everything.

After that while Dean still shouted, screamed and railed at anything and about anything, he did seem to have a limit and Sam had noticed that his brother, even strung out and in agony, was watching what he said to him now and never went over the line that included mentioning their parents or Jessica or what Dean believed Sam had been doing the past year.

Of course Dean could still toss little jabs out that hurt but Sam accepted those and mostly shrugged them off. He hated not being able to touch Dean or get close when things got too bad but even Sam had to admit that his big brother could still be dangerous even tied like he was.

It had taken only two stitches and a good dousing with antiseptic to clean the wound he’d gotten after his stubborn sibling, in the heat of a nightmare or screaming fit, had managed to bite him and once again it was Benny who had put a stop to that and had gotten Dean’s fingers out of Sam’s hair where he’d latched on with a grip of death.

Now Sam made certain to stay away from the top of the bed when his brother was awake and agitated. He was mostly in the room except for the times when Dean got too bad or his memories of Purgatory surfaced.

Sam believed Dean fought and screamed more during those times than anything else and it was in those moments that he didn’t complain when he felt Benny enter the room because he understood that no matter how much he wanted to that he couldn’t help his brother right then.

He’d finally cracked a little to let the surface emotions out the first night he’d been forced to let Benny stay with Dean, to calm him down and reassure him that he wasn’t in Purgatory anymore.

Benny usually spent a few hours in the room in order to give Sam time to try to sleep or eat or shower, things he wouldn’t do if he was with Dean because he didn’t feel right doing the things that his brother couldn’t right then.

The first time he’d left Benny alone with Dean though had been rough and those two words hit him hard and he made certain the vampire understood that if he touched his brother he’d be dead a second later.

Scrubbing a hand over his tired eyes, Sam bit back a groan as he stretched his knee out and reminded himself to try to put some ice on it before Dean woke up again.

Having suffered various injuries over the years assured Sam that he hadn’t broken or hurt the knee too badly. It was just sore and swelled right then which made walking or standing a pain in the ass but he couldn’t keep it elevated or iced like he knew it should be if he wanted to stay with Dean.

Sixteen years earlier it had taken two weeks of screaming and agony before the worst of it was over. Sam prayed to a God he still tried to believe in that his brother didn’t have to suffer that long this time because he wasn’t sure either of them could handle that.

His other concern was Morrison. Sam knew the hunter was still out there and would be looking for him even harder now after the scene at the motel.

Sam had faced a lot of crap in his life. He’d been down some dark roads and faced some heavy stuff without blinking and while he’d never willingly admit it to Benny or even Dean, unless forced, he was scared to death of the next encounter with Shane Morrison.

Dealing with demons, angels, ghosts or the like was something that didn’t make Sam blink but he hated dealing with evil of the human nature…especially someone as twisted as Morrison already was.

He would’ve preferred putting miles between the hunter and his brother because while Sam hated the thought of dealing with the man again he had bigger fears of what the Morrison could do to Dean while he was in this state.

“God, please wake up, Dean,” he whispered, feeling burned out and just wanting to sleep but refusing to until he knew Dean would be safe or his brother could coherently tell him it was safe to sleep.

Five days of listening to his older brother scream until his voice gave out, of begging and pleading to be untied or just for something to make the pain stop; of cleaning him up of spit, puke and things that Sam never wanted to think about again and of dealing with the distrustful looks, the sulking moods, the hurtful words.

It had been five days of hardly sleeping, very little eating, drinking more caffeine than Sam thought he’d drank since getting rid of Lucifer in his head and five long days of wondering when the moment would come when he’d get that dark, nearly ice cold look and be told to get the hell out.

Sam closed his eyes long enough to blink the spots out from in front of them then pinched the bridge of his nose before looking up toward the ceiling.

They hadn’t seen or heard from Castiel in a while which wasn’t anything new and Sam knew he’d given up seriously praying since he first learned that most Angels he’d met weren’t what he’d always believed them to be but by this point his nerves and emotions were so frayed that he was willing to try anything.

“Cas…whoever listens to this stuff these days, it’s been a long time since I’ve done this or talked to you guys…not since Dean first disappeared last year and I…anyway, please help him make it out of this one,” Sam looked back to see if his brother was still sleeping but relaxed when he didn’t notice any change.

“Dean’s survived Purgatory, or at least I think he survived it, and even if he hates me or thinks I didn’t look for him he’s still my brother and…I know we’ve both in a pain to you guys up there but if you could just help him get over this…help him come out of this without being too hurt and let the need go away then you can do whatever you want to me or however this works or…”

Sam jerked when he heard the doorknob turn and swore under his breath as he quickly slashed at his eyes to try to clear them. “Yeah?”

“You want me to spell ya for a bit?” Benny had waited until it had nearly gotten dark before coming to check on the Winchesters and if he’d heard Sam speaking to Heaven in a plea to help Dean recover he didn’t let on as he leaned on the knob.

“Uh…no, thanks,” Sam coughed to cover the shakiness in his voice, making certain his eyes were dry and his face calm before glancing over. “Dean’s still sleeping so we’re good. It’s when he’s awake that he remembers how much he…” he cut that off because he didn’t need to think on it much more. “We’re fine.”

‘Sure he is,’ Benny thought to himself, seeing the lie for what it was but avoiding it for the moment to merely nod. “Okay, then I’ll take a run back to that little place a few miles back to grab some food for you tonight and some beer,” he thought that maybe Sam would be more at ease if he was away from the cabin for a little while. “Be back in about an hour or so?”

Thinking to himself that it was pretty bad when even a vampire could see him and wanted to get space, Sam nodded. “Yeah and hey…see if they have some type of pie,” he smiled a little even though the sadness never left his eyes when they glanced back toward Benny. “He’ll want pie as soon as he wakes up enough and…I always manage to forget it.”

“Sure, I’ll grab something,” the vampire agreed, starting to turn but stopped to look back and sighed as he took in Sam’s tense shoulders and the way he still hovered over Dean but knew the second the older man began coming around that Sam would be across the room and letting on that he hadn’t just spent the past couple hours cleaning wounds or trying to stick tissues under the ropes around Dean’s wrists and ankles.

Benny didn’t know what Dean had said to Sam while in the Impala on the way here or even after the brothers had arrived but he had a hunch it wasn’t close to what the pigheaded jackass should have told the kid.

Sam still believed his older brother didn’t trust him and would choose anyone else over him and after that one scene he’d walked in on and broke up, the vampire guessed he could see where Sam had gotten that opinion.

“He doesn’t hate you, Sam,” he spoke up, knowing that was still what was going on by the way Sam tensed. “Dean don’t know what the hell he’s saying right now and that night he was mostly seeing crap from below so just wait it out and talk to him once he’d awake.”

“Dean doesn’t talk. Dean yells or shuts down but my brother hardly ever talks…or at least he doesn’t to me,” Sam returned quietly, not bothering to look back as he added in a softer tone. “I guess he only talks to you or Cas.”

“Then I guess the three of us are just gonna have to have us a good old fashion sit down when he’s awake and stuff,” the vampire replied, giving the pair another look before starting to step back. “Unless you fall over from that shoulder bleedin’ again, that is,” he added. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

Sam growled a little under his breath at that but stayed still until he heard the truck drive off then blew out a breath while glancing up at his sleeping brother with a snort. “He’s more annoying than you can be,” he complained, seeing the first flicker of movement of Dean’s eyelashes and groaned. “You wait until Benny leaves to wake up?”

If he didn’t know better Sam would sometimes swear his older brother did stuff like this on purpose just to drive him to the point of exasperation but knew that wasn’t true because right then Dean couldn’t help anything he did or said…even if it sometimes looked differently.

“Please wake up a little better, Dean,” he murmured to the room, wishing he knew how to make this better for both of them but knew that was next to impossible at the moment when right then as the pain surged in his own hurt body all Sam could think of was the Impala and what his brother had said toward the end…after the rather loud disagreement.

** Flashback, Five Days Earlier, in the Impala: **

“Killing me.”

Sam’s head jerked to the side as those words hit him like a gallon of ice cold water and then it was all he could do to bring the car to a stop without wrecking.

Tires squealed while the brakes screeched and burned as he slammed on them while jerking the wheel to bring them off to the side of the road rather than stop in the middle of the dark road, which had been his original plan once his brain began to function again.

“If I could feel my arms and didn’t see two of you I’d probably kill you for that,” Dean was tired and it was reflected in his voice and by the way he merely lifted one eyebrow at the way his little brother stopped the car.

“Screw it,” Sam wasn’t sure if he was more angry, hurt, or scared by what he’d just been told. “What the hell do you mean let Benny ‘kill’ you?” he demanded, turning to face his brother fully and resisted the urge to shake him in the hopes that it was the shock or drugs causing this reaction. “I know you’re pissed at me for any number of things but…you are getting through this and there’s no way I’m letting him…”

Dean had known how his brother would probably react to this plan. That was why he’d decided to drop it on him while they were alone and before pains and need got too much to handle.

He knew what his brother believed even without Benny getting in his face about it. He knew because Dean was only too aware that he’d popped off more than once to Sam recently and after years of growing up together he almost could tell what Sam would think about his actions or words.

Despite all the fights and bitterness he admitted had been getting worse, his need to protect Sam was still engrained in his nature.

Not talking about Purgatory, not sharing what he’d done or seen while trapped there had become locked in his mind and soul much like the events of Hell had been.

The elder brother figured he might’ve eventually shared with Sam more about that time and he might have even told him about Benny if he hadn’t gotten so damn pissed off and hurt after finding out what his little brother had been doing, or what he believed he’d been doing…now Dean wasn’t so sure what to think.

He’d been suspicious after Garth’s call to warn Sam about Shane Morrison. Now with some things Benny had said, he was fairly certain that hitting a dog and meeting a girl wasn’t the only thing his little brother had done in the year he was gone.

Though right at the moment, Dean knew they had to focus on other things, like whether or not he wanted Sam around him for what was coming.

“Dean!”

Dean realized Sam had been speaking to him, or more likely yelling at him and he’d missed the biggest part of it. “Indoor voice, Sam,” he sighed, now fairly certain he had a concussion on top of everything else but refused to throw up in his own car and not having the strength to open the door. “I just don’t want…”

“I know you don’t want me here! You’ve made that abundantly clear for a month or so but regardless of how much you think I’ve screwed up or haven’t been there for you, I’m still your brother and I’m not walking away from this,” Sam snapped, glad most of the car was dark so he didn’t have to worry about his brother seeing the full hurt expression on his face or see the tears that were threatening now. “If I had been there this time those damn vamps might not have grabbed you or…”

“Or they could’ve nailed both of us or you or…” Dean wondered if he sounded as tired or uncaring right then as he thought he did and figured he must have by the soft sound he heard from next to him. “Sam, I…when did I say I didn’t want you here?”

Shit, was that what Sam was thinking? Was that what he’d been letting his brother think? Of course even with all the fights over Ruby, the demon blood and letting Lucifer out Dean supposed he’d never come right out and said half of what he had recently and if Sam was hiding something from him then that also explained his little brother’s reactions to the fights.

“You said Benny’d been a better brother to you. Kind of read between the lines there and since you don’t trust me enough to have your back or open up to me again well it’s pretty clear that…” Sam stopped before he either said the wrong thing or made this worse, shaking his head. “You got over this before and you can…”

“I was eighteen and had been shot up by some stupid cult. This is totally different this time, Sam,” Dean knew that because he could feel the difference even now. “I’ve been to Hell and Purgatory. I’m a lot more dangerous than I was back then, especially if I lose it too much and…I don’t want to hurt you so…”

“What difference would it make?” the question was out before Sam realized he’d spoken it out loud and only realized he had when he saw the flicker of the muscle in Dean’s jaw twitch like it usually would when his brother was getting angry. “I mean…I just mean there’ve been plenty of times over the years that we’ve gotten hurt helping the other so why would this change anything?”

Wanting to reach over to each either cuff the younger man in the head or pull him close, Dean made himself merely shift enough that he could turn to try to see his brother in the darkened interior. “Losing it in the withdrawals, forgetting where I am or trying to get free or something…” he sighed, not seeing anyway other way to say this without just flat out doing out.

“I’m still on edge from being in Purgatory, Sam. The things I did, the things I had to let myself do to survive down there…if it gets too bad then the term hurting you may be an understatement,” Dean told him, feeling his fingers suddenly curl around the door handle as a short but intense burst of pain shot through him, going on tightly. “I could kill you without realizing it was you, Sammy and that’s why I made Benny promise to kill me. Now I want your promise that you’ll let him.”

Sam’s breath had caught but he could feel the intensity of his brother’s gaze and he let his own eyes dropped to the seat. “I…I…won’t promise that, Dean,” he finally got out, hearing hiss and going on quickly. “I will promise that I’ll do my best to get you through this but…if and only if I think you’re going too far down or it looks like you aren’t pulling outta this like you should then…I’ll let him ki…”

The last words broke off because Sam couldn’t bring himself to say it. He couldn’t face failing Dean that badly that his brother would need to be killed, especially by a vampire. “When you get better…there’s something I think I need to talk to you about…unless you really want me gone and then I’ll…”

“Damn, Bobby would kill me for this mess,” Dean mumbled under his breath, trying to remember but failing to recall the last real time he’d heard Sam sound so lost, so nearly broken and knew most of it was his fault because he’s allowed the pain, stress and bitterness to get to him and he’d taken it all out on Sam.

“Okay, I’ll make you a deal…damn, this really hurts now,” he bit his lip but tensed at the feel of an almost hesitant hand on his wrist. “You…don’t kill Benny, no matter how annoying he gets or if I get bad and we’ll talk once I wake up. I’ll tell you some stuff about last year.”

Sam had frozen at this and knew Dean was in bad shape if his brother was agreeing to talk about Purgatory. He started to move his hand when he felt Dean’s hand turn over to grip his wrist with a hold that was tighter than he’d been expecting.

“We’ll talk, Sam,” Dean needed that point stressed because he knew by the tone in his brother’s voice that it wouldn’t take much more to cause Sam to bolt but he couldn’t drop the walls right then or tell Sam any more than he was or until he found out what he might’ve already been told. “Promise me that you’ll stay away if it gets too bad?”

“Did you listen to that one when I tried to get you to promise me that the last time I detoxed?” Sam countered, almost smiling when he heard the soft curse then sighed when the grip squeezed again. “I…won’t leave you alone but…I’ll agree to back off when I need to. Okay?”

That wasn’t really okay with Dean but he knew at this point it was the best he was going to get out of his brother and nodded. “Fine. Now, can you get us there without scratching my baby or should I drive?”

“If I let you drive it’ll be more than scratches on her that you’ll have to worry about,” Sam retorted but turned the key to start the ignition, forcing himself to focus on the road and getting to the old fishing cabin. “You’re gonna be fine, Dean,” he whispered more to himself than his brother right then. “You’re gonna be fine.”

** Present time: **

“You’re…gonna…be fine,” Sam wasn’t even aware that he was talking to himself or that he’d zoned out until a sound from next to him took him by surprise.

“I…think I am…but I’m not…so sure about you right now.”

Sam jerked around at the ragged voice to see deeply shadowed but almost clear green eyes watching him and he couldn’t help but wonder how long he’d been in his memories because Dean’s gaze was mixed between amused and concerned.

“Dean,” he shoved to his feet and had to make a grab for the wall to keep his knee from buckling as he stood too quickly since he’d never let his brother know he was close to the bed during one of the calm times. “Uh, how long have you…sorry, I was just…”

“Overthinking,” Dean nodded, guessing that while blinking his eyes to try to clear them a bit more as he took a slightly better look at Sam and despite still being a little hazy, tired, sore and feeling the need just on the edge of his mind he could honestly say his little brother looked as bad as Dean guessed he felt right then.

Sam’s face was pale and shadowed with tired hazel eyes red rimmed with huge bags underneath them. Shaggy hair in disarray like it was when Sam would pull his fingers through it when he was nervous or hyper.

Taking in the clothes gave Dean a better idea to Sam’s condition since he was fairly certain that was the same t-shirt he’d seen his brother wearing three days ago during one of his more lucid trips back to consciousness.

Giving his hands a casual move in the ropes as if he was either working to relieve the pain and strain in them or testing to see how tight they still were, he noticed the extra padding and also how the wounds were clean so it was clear to him that Sam was taking better care of him than he was of himself.

Noticing the way Sam was moving caused Dean to focus harder and he caught the stain on the shoulder of Sam’s flannel shirt, seeing it was a bigger and darker stain than the last time he’d noticed it which made him itch to see what was under the shirt that could be bleeding.

Of course it also ticked him off if Sam was bleeding, with a vampire in the vicinity, and his brother wasn’t treating it. Though then it hit him how much Sam was favoring and had been favoring his right leg, moving his head enough that as Sam tried to put more distance between himself and the bed he frowned.

“Sam?” Dean felt exhausted but he also felt starved and thirsty which told him that the worst of this must be over because he remembered the last time he’d gone through this that it had nearly been two weeks before he could even think of food on his own without feeling like puking.

Now, however, he was centered on Sam or actually more on Sam’s right leg which was clearly injured if Dean took the way his brother was trying to keep his full weight off of it and the way the jeans seemed to be really tight around the knee area.

“Sorry, just a little…tired right now,” Sam forced a smile, not sure why he was suddenly so on edge or why going back to the bed seemed to scare him except it was so much harder to avoid Dean’s direct questions or the intense looks when he was close to him. “You need water. Hang on, I’ll grab it.”

“I need a beer,” Dean countered, swallowing to try to wet his mouth and dry lips but giving up on that idea when it was plain that his spit had left him. “Though…water works too in a pinch,” he knew he wouldn’t be coming close to a beer for at least another week or less if he could swing it.

Sam grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler he kept in the bedroom for just such cases. Twisting it open he slowly came back to the bed because he knew his brother needed help drinking. “No biting this time?”

“Pay back for when you were teething,” Dean didn’t remember biting Sam but couldn’t deny the teeth prints he could still see marring his brother’s arm. “You bit me plenty of times.”

Surprised at the way Dean seemed to be right then, Sam pushed it aside as he helped him lift his head enough to take a few sips of water before easing it back to see if the liquid would stay down this time. “Think you can handle a couple crackers? The saltines should help any nausea.”

“Double bacon cheeseburger with extra onions would help that better but…I guess you don’t have one of those handy, right?” Dean let his head fall back to the pillows with a sigh, feeling Sam’s eyes staring at him and he couldn’t help but shift his body more and suddenly hated the ropes more than he had even during the worst pains and urges.

“Umm, no, but keep the crackers down and we’ll try for broth or something light and bland,” Sam had to put the water bottle down when he realized his hands had begun to shake. “How…how’re you feeling?”

He dreaded the question because it was hard right then to tell if his brother was giving him an honest answer or just saying what he thought Sam wanted to hear in order to get the ropes off.

Sam also dreaded it because he knew the moment Dean became lucid enough to understand and reason that he’d start asking questions and Sam wasn’t prepared yet for that even though he was the one to say he needed to talk to Dean.

“I feel like I probably look,” Dean returned, watching Sam from under his lashes and didn’t miss the way his little brother was sitting or how he was playing with the bracelet he had back on his wrist. “I feel like I got used by a bunch of vamps for a food source, drugged to the gills and have been riding out the worst binge of my life. What’s your excuse for looking like road kill?”

The ragged voice sounded like sandpaper, or someone who’d screamed for five days straight but there was still enough big brother infliction to make Sam squirm, running his left hand through his hair since even trying to move his right one up that high was no agony.

“Probably the same thing except I’ve been the one mostly awake while you rode the binge out,” he finally replied, feeling the nudge of Dean’s leg and winced since he figured how much just getting that much movement out had to hurt his brother right then.

“Did I hurt you?” Dean didn’t like for how Sam was looking or more importantly not looking since normally his little brother should be doing huge, wet, tear filled puppy eyes but yet now it was like Sam couldn’t bring himself to look at him. “Sam, look at me. Did something happen?”

“What?” Sam blinked; looking over on instinct to find himself locked in his brother’s intense gaze and felt his chest tighten as it began to dawn on him that not once since realizing Dean was awake had his brother made the usual demands.

Seeing the way Dean was watching him, especially when his brother seemed to zero in on his shoulder, Sam quickly understood the question and shook his head, stunned that after everything he’d been through Dean thought he might’ve hurt him.

“No, nothing happened,” he assured him, seeing and recognizing the way Dean’s eyes narrowed. “Dean, aside from taking a chunk out of my arm and trying to rip my hair out one time you didn’t touch me. You didn’t hurt me,” he added the last assurance a bit more slowly and quietly to try to convince his older brother.

Dean still looked doubtful but chose to let it go for the moment to look up at the ropes holding his wrists. “Sam? You know how I said not to let me loose until you were damn certain it was safe to?” he tensed his arms to test the ropes but didn’t feel any give to them. “Feel free to do that any time now.”

Taking in a deep breath, Sam hesitated. He could see Dean’s eyes were still a little glassy but figured his brother was and would be in shock for a little while yet.

He’d gone through the mental checklist that he could remember his Dad and Pastor Jim doing before they’d let his brother loose the last time and he’d checked off most of the warnings mentally but Sam still was leery.

While both of them had grown up lying, conning, cheating and stealing when it was called for, Dean had been a master of it long before he’d even been a teenager and while normally Sam could tell if his brother was lying to him it had become more difficult with the strain between them.

“I…I can’t do that yet, Dean,” he murmured, not missing the sharp intake of breath or the small flash of emotion in those green eyes but looked away as he pushed himself to his feet again to put some distance between them before the yelling started. “Just…if you stay calm, if the pains don’t come back for a few hours when you’re awake and you can keep something on your stomach…then maybe tomorrow afternoon we can try it but…”

“Sammy,” Dean knew this was his fault. He had been the one to tell his brother not to let him go no matter what and now he had to deal with it since he was pretty certain Sam was two steps into shock himself. “C’mon, have I yelled once? Have I snarled at you once since you stopped overthinking? Besides, don’t you think it’d be a good idea to change this bed and I really need a shower, so untie the ropes, Sam.”

It was clear that Sam wanted to just that but the other half, the half that knew the risks of Dean getting free if he was still sick, balked on it.

Hating this and wishing Benny was here to at least offer an opinion; Sam chewed his lip and heard the sound of the bed creaking as Dean now fully tested the ropes and he shook his head sadly. “No, not until tomorrow, Dean,” he refused quietly. “I’m…sorry.”

“Where’s Benny?” Dean didn’t plan on overruling his brother though it had been a plan briefly but now he mainly wanted to know where the hell the vampire was in case Sam dropped to the floor like the way he was weaving unsteadily suddenly suggested he might.

It wasn’t until he caught the way Sam’s whole body went rigid did Dean feel like biting his own tongue off, realizing with the way his brother felt toward Benny, with what Sam believed right then, that asking for the vampire would further make Sam believe he was getting shoved away.

“Damn it,” Dean cursed himself, lifting his head and upper body as much as he could right then and once again swore at the ropes holding him. “Sam, wait a second. I just wanted to know why he wasn’t here helping you,” he tried to get that out quickly before Sam could shut him out.

Swallowing the sour taste in his mouth along with the brief burst of hurt that he’d almost allowed himself to think this would get better, Sam moved to the door to go check if Benny had returned yet. “He went to get some stuff and to give me space, I think,” he told his brother quietly, laying a hand on the handle before looking back. “He’ll be back soon if he’s not yet and…he’ll be in. I’ll go heat up some broth of something if you want it.”

“Sam, wait,” Dean groaned, not sure if the pain was his own conscious kicking him or the strain he was putting on his arms as they stretched over his head. “Sammy, c’mon. Let me go and we can…” he realized that he was preaching to the choir and that Sam’s mind was made up about waiting to undo the ropes, he slumped back to the bed to blow out a disgusted breath. “You know what you are, Sam?”

Dean had closed his eyes for just a moment to clear them again and he might not have opened them if he hadn’t heard the soft, almost inaudible sound that sounded like a mix between a choked laugh and a sob.

It was a sound that he hadn’t heard in a long time and one that he’d hoped he never would again because the last time he’d heard Sam make it his brother had been breaking from too much stress between them and not enough trust…just like now.

“Yeah, you never came right out and said it…yet but I figure I know what you’re building up to, Dean,” Sam remarked, finally looking over his shoulder and this time there was no longer any way to mistake the clear and present pain, hurt, shame and loss reflected in too large and wet hazel eyes that were in pure puppy eye power. “I know what kind of bastard I am and…I’ll take off as soon as you’re on your feet and…”

“Come again?” Dean stared then groaned in frustration. “Sam, listen to me. That’s not what I meant and…I don’t want you to leave,” he knew he’d pushed too far this time, had hurt Sam too much and had to work quick to convince his little brother to listen to him even if it meant admitting things he didn’t want to. “Sammy, I…I know I’ve said some crap but…Sam, you said Benny was gone?”

Dean had heard the noise only a second before Sam did but as the younger man went to turn back to the hall to step out to see if the vampire had returned or what it was, all Sam felt was a burst of white hot pain shoot through his skull as he collapsed to the floor with a groan and a thud.

“Sam?” Dean’s head shot to the door but couldn’t see anything with the way the damn door was half closed. “Sammy? Damn it, answer me. What was that and… _sonuvabitch_ ,” he let out the oath in a whisper before the next few cursed were thrown viciously and with meaning as he glared at Shane Morrison.

“Well, well, looks like I interrupted some family bonding, Dean?” the hunter sneered, stepping into the room to gaze around it before falling on the fully restrained and now seething older Winchester. “Sounds like you and little brother have some issues. It’s a pity you won’t get to settle ‘em.”

Dean was tired and he may feel like crap but a single look at the sneering, smirking hunter wiped all that away for him and just left burning rage, along with worry for his brother suddenly. “What in the hell are you doing here, Morrison?” he demanded, voice deeper and huskier right then due to his throat but ignoring it as he tried once again to free himself. “Where’s Sam? How’d you even find this place and why?”

“Money talks, Winchester,” Morrison shrugged, not intending to admit that it’d been more than money that had finally gotten him told about the location of this old fishing cabin that Singer and Murphy once had and he’d figured if Sam was running that he might go there.

“As for what I’m doing here, that falls under the listing of asking your little brother…if you could,” he laughed, stepping closer to the bed once he was assured that Dean couldn’t get loose to attack him. “See, Sammy and me have some unfinished business from last year that I intend to finish now that the old man won’t be sticking his nose in and…neither will you it seems.”

Staring up while trying to make sense of this, Dean’s mind clicked on Garth’s call and Benny’s odd comment about Sam being attacked and he went cold. “Where’s my brother?” he demanded harshly, seeing the way the man’s eyes kept sliding to the door. “Sam!”

“Oh, he won’t be waking up until I have him someplace nice and quiet where all that damn screaming won’t upset the neighbors this time,” Morrison told him, leaning a knee on the bed to get in Dean’s face since he enjoyed being able to tease the older boy while knowing he was helplessly tied.

“I told him back at that motel when I shot him that I was gonna tell you all about that time. All about those two weeks after I ran across him as he was looking for someone with a clue to find you, wherever the hell you took off to,” he pressed a hand over the bandage on Dean’s side and smiled cruelly when the younger man bit his lip to keep in the scream of pain.

He sat on the edge of the bed, propping a boot up on his leg as he watched Dean in a kind of sick amusement. “Y’see, it never bothered me what some others said about you boys. I’d always known your little brother was a freak of some kind and I know what’s been said but I grabbed him and I beat on him, left him those nifty scars on his back and shoulders because I could…and I’ll do more before I finally kill him this time.”

Dean could feel his rage building but also felt his empty stomach flipping as things slowly began to hit him in waves. “You touch my brother, asshole and I’ll…argh!” he couldn’t quiet cover the cry of pain this time as a hard fist pounded into his kidney.

“No, there won’t be no big brother tell me not to go near little Sammy this time, Dean,” Morrison reached up to grab a handful of short hair to yank it back as he pulled a knife. “From what I hear, you boys ain’t as close like you were and it seems like you got a new whipping boy to play with or so Sam thinks from what I heard,” he ran the knife down Dean’s throat. “I could kill you but I think I’ll leave you alive. Besides, unless someone finds you, by the time you get yourself loose from these ropes, your little brother will be long gone or wishing he was.

“Though from what I heard out there, seems you boys aren’t playin’ too well together right now so maybe getting rid of the trash is just what you need,” he chuckled, another fist to the head as he stood up while wishing he had time to play now but he wasn’t sure if the Winchesters were alone or if the bastard who’d been with Sam at the motel was still hanging around.

“Sam…damn it…Morrison, don’t touch him,” Dean swore as he fought the ropes to get free, knowing his brother was hurt and not ready for this and also swearing to kill someone for not telling him any of this earlier. “Let Sam…mmmff!”

A worn piece of flannel was shoved in his mouth to stifle his furious shouts as his body strained in the ropes that he’d insisted Sam use. Now as he watched helplessly as the other hunter stroll out of the bedroom, whistling and describing his every move for Dean’s benefit, the young man raged silently.

“Shame you and your big brother won’t get the chance to patch this up, Sammy-boy,” Morrison grunted a little under Sam’s weight as he slung him over his shoulder, making no allowance not to hurt him more as he banged Sam against the doorway leading out of the cabin to his truck where he took the time to expertly tie and gag him.

Stepping back to the door, he leaned in to hear the muffled shouts and he laughed. “You have fun with your life now, Dean and don’t worry too much about the freak. I’ll take good care of him…while he’s alive that is.”

Dean heard the door slam but the mocking laughter stayed with him long after he heard the noise of the truck drive off and realized the son of a bitch must have coasted down the dirt road on approach so no one would hear him.

Tied to the bed and gagged, Dean was pissed at himself, pissed at anyone who’d known about Morrison and more than a little pissed at Sam for not telling him anything had happened with the asshole.

The injuries, nausea, thirst and any leftover desire for drugs were now far out of Dean’s thoughts as he raged, knowing he was probably hurting himself more by straining but determined to get loose so he could hunt the bastard down who’d hurt his little brother and get Sam back before he could be hurt again.

Time stopped having any meaning for Dean as his thoughts drifted back to the hurt and loss he’d seen in Sam’s gaze before this happened and he realized like a fool that Sam believed everything he’d been saying since he got back.

Dean had taken all the pain and bitterness of Purgatory out on Sam in the only way he knew how and his little brother had taken it all in, believing that Dean would rather have Benny around than him and…

“Hey! Sam?”

The sudden sound of whiskey and honey coated Cajun accent had Dean’s head swinging toward the door and screaming as best as he could through the heavy flannel with an already torn up throat.

Benny had returned to the cabin later than he’d planned but he figured Sam could use the extra time. Though he picked up on something odd the second he entered the front door, seeing the way it looked like the lock was broke.

Calling for Sam as he carried in a few bags, he was about to sit them on the counter when the muffled scream reached him. Then bags and groceries went flying as the vampire tore through the cabin to the back bedroom, stopping in the door.

“What the hell?” he growled, taking in the fresh bruises on Dean’s face and the gag while not finding or even smelling Sam but he felt his lips curl back as he picked up another smell. “Hang on a second, brother.”

“Cut me loose and where the hell’ve you been?” Dean demanded as soon as the gag was gone and he could speak, jerking his wrists again. “Benny, get me outta these damn ropes, now!”

The vampire considered it briefly before taking in the rage in his friend’s now fully clear eyes, reaching for the blade in his boot to go to work on the ropes. “What happened?”

“Shane goddamn Morrison is what happened,” Dean growled, groaning as his first wrist came free and he had to resist the urge to pull it straight down in his haste to be moving. “Son of a bitch found out about this place and somehow tracked Sammy here and…Benny, you got that look that I know I’m gonna want to kick your ass over…what?”

Freeing the other wrist, Benny went to work on the ankles but not before noticing that Dean had managed to cut himself up pretty good with all the struggling he’d been doing to get loose. “Gonna guess that’s the fella I tossed around back at the motel when he shot Sam,” he now wished he’d broken his neck when he had the chance. “Sam didn’t figure he was done.”

“You were supposed to watch after him, Benny,” Dean complained, rubbing the circulation back into his arms and ignoring the jagged rope burns and bloody welts on his wrists and ankles for the moment. “Wait, Sam was shot? That’s why he’s favoring his right arm?”

“Figure so,” Benny nodded, cutting the final rope and wasn’t a bit shocked when he had to grab for his friend’s arm to steady him as Dean’s first instinct was to push to his feet. “Easy there, brother. You need to settle back and get your bearings or…”

No, Dean knew what he needed to do and sitting still for one more damn second just wasn’t it as he shrugged off the tight grip to catch himself on the wall while looking for his duffel and clean clothes.

“He’s got too big a head start now,” he argued, trying to think in too many ways and finally had to sit on the edge of the bed when his head spun too much and he nearly threw up. “I’ve gotta call some people and…”

Benny stood by to watch the hunter as he pulled on a clean T-shirt and jeans without even bothering to check the wounds or dress the welts now.

He could sense the rage billowing off of Dean as he managed to get around without too much hassle and only had to steady him once, backing off though at the way he felt Dean’s muscles bunch under his hand.

While in town, the vampire had been considering the best way to approach his friend about this mess with Sam. He understood that Dean didn’t want to talk to his brother about Purgatory, just like he suspected Sam didn’t want to tell Dean about that missing time last year but for either Winchester to cope or heal, they needed to talk.

He also needed to make Dean see that he’d been an ass to a kid who still worshipped him basically. But as he watched Dean now, noticing that with each step, each curse and swear thrown at whoever he was cursing he could see the strength returning to his weakened body and figured he might not have too much to do in those regards now.

“What you plannin’ on doin’, Dean?” he asked calmly, smoothing a hand over his chin to hide his small smile as he was given the full on hard and intense green eyed glare of a pissed of Dean Winchester; the type of look that he hadn’t seen on him except once in Purgatory and that was when one of those monsters had been foolish enough to bring Sam into the conversation.

Digging through his duffel to find his .45 and a belt, Dean looked back at the question. There was no doubt or hesitation in his mind as he reached for his jacket, ignoring the pain of stiff and sore muscles. “I’m going to go find the bastard who was stupid enough to touch my little brother and feed him his goddamn lungs before I get Sammy back…and you’re gonna help me.”

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know. I thought Sam could go one story without getting hurt and we’ll see how fast Dean finds him. Getting to Sam isn’t Dean’s biggest issue though. Convincing Sam that he’d been wrong all these months and learning Sam’s secrets face the boys ahead. Update soon.


	7. Chapter 7

**Fangs and Fury**

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** Chapter Seven **

“‘ _Benny’s been a better brother to me than you’ve been_.’”

“‘ _Sam looked for you for nearly a month before something happened and he vanished for like two weeks_.’”

“‘ _Boy was so distracted trying to find someone to help him find wherever you took off to that he was easy meat when I grabbed him_.’”

“‘ _Yeah, I know what you think I am, Dean_.’”

Fury and guilt all were rolling around in Dean Winchester’s already sick stomach as he tried to focus on the road, the directions on a hastily scrawled piece of paper while months of hurtful jabs all piled back on him, along with things from recent days.

It had taken Dean far longer than he liked to finally get out of the fishing cabin and on the road to either track or find the damn hunter who’d nailed his little brother.

Shane Morrison had been a son of a bitch even back when Dean had been a teenager and just from the short time he’d seen him this now assured the hunter that much hadn’t changed.

What would change as soon as Dean caught up to him was his ability to suck in air since he planned to feed the man his lungs…or his heart, depending on how generous he was feeling at the moment.

Right then Dean wasn’t feeling anything but hate, guilt, and worry. Hate for the goddamn hunter that had not only kidnapped Sam this time but had apparently done it before on top of shooting Sam just recently.

The guilt was aimed at himself since he was very much aware now just how badly he’d screwed up with his brother lately. He’d taken all his pain and turmoil, the bitterness he felt at returning to the belief that he’d been abandoned and turned it on his little brother, the little brother that he was now worrying over because Sam had been hurt, physically and emotionally, even before the attack at the fishing cabin had occurred.

Dean’s mind was locked on the inner pain he suddenly realized had been in Sam’s eyes during their last time together and he felt his fingers clenching on the wheel while offering several well-chosen phrases for himself for being a moron.

No, moron didn’t begin to cover what Dean figured he’d been to Sam lately. A cold blooded, heartless, unfeeling, blind bastard would slightly get him into the right range to describe what he’d been these past few months.

He’d accused Sam of being unreliable, of not being there for him when how many times had Dean let his little brother down.

The part that truly pissed the hunter off was that he actually bought that damn excuse Sam had given him to explain why he hadn’t been looking for Dean. He had listened to it and believed that his brother would have walked away just that easily and he’d been using that pain to really hurt Sam at every chance he got.

Now he found out that it had been something far more drastic and far more dangerous that had caused his brother to leave hunting after a single phone call to the one other hunter Dean knew Sam might turn to gave him a better picture of his brother’s life after the final confrontation with Dick Roman.

“‘ _Sam was coming to see me since I’d told him I knew a man who might have information that he needed in his search to find you. He’d been running himself into the ground for close to a month. He’d already gotten hurt a couple times according to Garth and I was worried he’d end up dead if I didn’t get to him but…it was too late_.’”

Jefferson had been an older man, a friend of the Winchesters for as long as Dean could recall but who had retired from hunting a while back. Though retiring from active hunting didn’t mean you ever fully got out of the life or so it seemed.

“‘ _When Sam was three days late I began trying to call him since at first I thought he got tied up with something else but after a week I knew something was wrong because while you’d been prone to ignore phone calls, your brother never would,’” the older man sounded grim over the phone, as well as a touch guilty. “‘Morrison was a friend of some other hunters you boys had some problems with a few years back but then I think he and you had some issues anyway._

“‘ _He’s got a lot of friends who cover for him so it took me a while to find out that he’d nailed Sam and another few days before I could get to him but your Dad, Jim and Bobby still have friends too that helped me get your brother out but damn, his back and one shoulder looked like raw meat and_ …’”

Sam had looked for him, had tried to find him only to get jumped by some asshole with a chip on his shoulder and a mean streak a mile wide.

Dean had listened to the rest of Jefferson’s story with one ear on the words and the other on what he wasn’t being told. It was there that he pieced together what happened to have caused Sam to drop out of hunting and lose himself in some small Texas town.

Morrison had hurt Sam bad enough that it had taken Jefferson over a week to get Sam’s fever down. Then came the time when it fully hit his brother that he was really alone and the panic of that on top of being hurt and whatever else the bastard had promised made him run.

“‘ _I shot the son of a bitch’s kneecap which is what’s kept him from coming after Sam before now but Dean…Shane’s dangerous and you know what hunters are capable of doing so you’ve got to find him_.’”

“Yeah, no kidding,” he muttered to himself, wincing as the wound on his side pulled when he shifted on the seat to grab a bottle of water since he knew he was still dehydrated.

The other reason he wasn’t answering his ringing phone since he was tired of getting lectured by Benny about taking it easy or having the damn bite marks or bruises checked or eating something that he could suck through a straw.

Dean wasn’t worrying about any of that until he had Sam back in the Impala and far away from this crap. He wasn’t thinking about any of it until he knew he could hopefully fix what he made go wrong. He wasn’t dealing with anything else before he ripped Shane Morrison’s head off for thinking he could touch his little brother and still live the week out.

When the phone rang again and he couldn’t ignore the flashing headlights in the Impala’s mirror any longer, he jerked the phone open to answer. “What?” he growled, aware that his tone had dropped back to one he hadn’t really used since Purgatory. “No, I’m not stopping or resting or doing anything else until I find Sam and kill that son of a bitch so stop calling me unless you got answers for me.”

The low chuckle he heard suddenly grated on his already strained nerves but Dean knew that was the point behind it because Benny was only too aware of how to get under his skin. “Sure, you want to fall flat on that face the first time you go to swing on the guy,” he tucked the phone against his neck while reaching for a bag of blood. “What type of answers you lookin’ for from me, brother?”

“You can start with sucking up to me big time since it was your brother that tried to use me for a damn blood bank. Then we can move onto why the hell Sam got shot in the first place since you were supposed to be watching him or why Morrison isn’t dead _after_ shooting my brother while you were watching him,” Dean began seriously, thinking to himself that Sam must have been seriously upset as it were to even call on Benny in the first place.

“Oh, and telling me what you told him about Purgatory is also a good thing too,” he tossed in since he wanted to know exactly what the vampire had been telling Sam since this began.

“Had to tell the kid something to explain why you made me promise to watch after him,” Benny shrugged, knowing he had to take this with some care since Dean was pissed off enough and still hurting. “I danced around what I thought you wouldn’t want him to know but you’re gonna have to talk to him sooner or later since your little brother carries guilt on him like a duck sheds water, Dean.”

Dean was only too aware of how much and how easily Sam carried around guilt. Hell, his brother would carry around guilt that wasn’t even his if he could…and he had in some cases.

“Sam doesn’t need to know most of what happened down there,” he muttered, accepting that he would have to explain some things but figured he could gloss over most of the horror if he could just manage to get Sam to speak with him and convince his brother that he didn’t hate him or any of the rest of the stuff he’d allowed him to think.

“You can’t coddle him, Dean,” Benny was more serious now.

His time with Sam had given him a little bit better view into the Winchesters lives and understood not only why Sam disliked him but also why Dean tried so hard to shove his brother away.

“I don’t coddle him,” Dean argued, sighing as he swore to hit his friend as another chuckle was heard. “I just try to protect him from knowing too much. That’s still me job, Benny. Looking after my pain in the ass little brother…even if he doesn’t always want or need it.”

“He needs you, Dean. No matter what he may say or makes you think, that kid thinks you walk on water, brother,” the vampire heard the deep sigh and didn’t recall hearing that before. “You okay?”

“Ask me that after I get Sam back and see if I can fix this mess,” Dean’s eyes looked to the directions on the paper. “You sure you want to help me with this?”

Smirking in the dark of his own truck as he followed the Impala, Benny snorted. “Like you say, I owe you for getting you into this mess so yeah. I’ll have your back,” he assured the hunter, not missing the worry in the deep voice. “He’ll be fine, Dean. Sam’s your brother and that makes him stronger than this asshole.”

Under normal circumstances Dean would’ve agreed but something in his brother’s eyes this time, in the soft tone of voice when he turned away from Dean this last time made him worry that Sam was hurting too much to be able to withstand very much for too long.

“Hang on, Sammy,” he whispered, pressing harder on the accelerator to push the Impala and himself closer to finding and saving his brother after Sam had worked so hard to save him.

** Texarkana, Somewhere: **

“You still breathing, pretty boy?”

Somewhere in the back of his head, Sam Winchester was wishing he wasn’t but he knew he was in too much pain to be dead. Plus the mocking voice was too loud and cruel to be anything but real.

Time or days had lost meaning since Sam wasn’t sure how the long it had been since he was knocked out back at the fishing cabin to wake up with his arms chained above him, hooked to a pulley system that allowed his captor to raise and lower him however he pleased.

Upon waking, Sam’s immediate thoughts went to his brother and he’d gotten that demand out before a series of brutal fists to his ribs, stomach and kidneys left him gasping for breath and gagging while Shane Morrison only smiled that slow evil smile that made him think the worst.

“Pretending to be unconscious won’t save you, boy,” the hunter growled, sounding menacingly close before something sharp and hot touched his side and the sound of a taser igniting hit only a second before his body jackknifed in the ropes. “Remember that feeling, Sam?”

“Just…kill me already,” Sam managed to get out between clenched teeth, fighting to control his breathing but his body still seemed to be experiencing little shocks.

The younger man was fairly certain he was going to die this time. He didn’t know if Morrison had killed Dean or not and even if he hadn’t his brother was still hurt and wouldn’t be able to find him.

Sam also wasn’t sure if Dean would want to find him if he could which is part of the reason Sam no longer cared if he died here or not…he just didn’t want the pain to go on and he knew that would because the hunter was a sadistic bastard.

“No, it won’t be that easy. Y’see, I plan on killin’ you but not before hearing you scream for it,” Morrison had planned this better than he had the first time which is why he’d chosen a place so out of the way that possible neighbors wouldn’t bitch about the screaming.

He debated with himself on drugging the boy but wanted Sam to be awake and coherent for the most part of this and had been enjoying the past forty eight hours of abuse that he’d afflicted on him.

“I’m doing this for a lot of reasons, Sam,” he began as he picked up a short but wide board that had a few sharp tacks sticking out of it before tapping it on his palm as he stepped up to jerk a handful of hair in order to force Sam’s head to rise. “Some could say it’s because of the rumors I’ve heard about you. Some could say it’s because I think both you damn Winchesters think you’re too good for the rest of the world or that your old man was a good for nothing bastard who looked down on me just because I didn’t share his opinions.”

Sam tried to jerk his head free but hissed as the fingers merely tightened to keep him still while the board hit hard against his pulled tight abdominal muscles and still he bit his already bleeding lip to keep the strangled cry of pain in.

“But to be honest, I’m doing this because it’s what I like to do to assholes who don’t know their place in the world,” Morrison sneered, giving the long hair he’d wrapped around his fingers a final vicious yank before releasing it to take a two handed grip on the board. “Lotta hunters out in the world but most of them don’t pull the crap you boys have and always come out of it smelling like roses.”

Surviving the Cage with two vengeful Archangels had taught Sam a lot about pain and this wasn’t the first time he’d been in a situation like this but it had been the first time in a long time that he was having trouble focusing on something other than the pain.

“Hunters don’t…argh!” the sudden searing pain in his lower back, right over the scar that he’d gained last year from Morrison’s attack, had Sam’s body trying to arch in the ropes but that only served to put more strain on his arms and shoulders.

“I ain’t been a hunter in a few years. Not since I realized it’s a lot more fun to hunt other things,” Morrison admitted, giving another couple whacks with the board before dropping it to watch the boy. “You’re probably figuring your big brother will bail you out this time but I don’t see that happening,” he stepped in behind Sam to run the tip of a blade between his shoulder blades. “Even if I hadn’t taken care of him, from what I saw and heard it didn’t look like he’d much care what I did to you, boy.”

Pain, shock and exhaustion was wearing thin on him but that comment made Sam’s head jerk up to try to find the man inducing the pain on his body. “What…you…what did you do to Dean?” he demanded, tasting blood as he hoped his voice was hoarse from dryness and pain and not the fear now clutching at his heart.

“I just took advantage of the boy being tied up so nice and pretty,” Morrison laughed, giving a rough slap to the back of Sam’s head as the harsh curses thrown his way. “Why so upset, Sammy boy? Not sure what kind of kinky crap you boys got into after your Daddy bought it but it looked like trouble in paradise to me. It might be good that I slit his throat.”

“You son of a…you wanted me. You didn’t have to hurt my brother,” Sam gritted, feeling the tears blinding him but not able to feel as they slid down his cheeks. “Dean…he couldn’t…defend himself…”

“That’s the best way to kill ‘em, boy,” the hunter replied cheerfully, trailing the tip of the blade along Sam’s neck until he came to the hollow of his throat to press it in a little harder. “With you though, I’m gonna slice and cut and tear until you’re beggin’ to join your brother in Hell. Then I’m gonna bleed you slow so you don’t die anywhere as fast as what he did and you can wonder just what else I did to make him scream before he died.”

Sam wasn’t even paying attention to the knife at his throat anymore. All he could see and hear in his mind was his brother as Dean tried to get him to untie him that night and how if Sam had done just that his brother would’ve been able to fight back.

All he could focus on now while his breathing began to get faster was that he’d managed to save Dean from vampires and he’d hoped the damn withdrawal only to get him killed by some asshole looking to hurt him.

Thoughts flashing on memories of his childhood, of before he’d gone to Stanford, of the good times between them and even when things weren’t so good and he’d always held the belief that Dean could and would survive anything.

He’d survived Hell, he’d made it out of Purgatory and through hell at the hands of vampires this time only to be helpless and alone at a time when…

Sharp pain seemed to want Sam’s attention but he was too close to hyperventilating to care even when a fist pounded into his face. “Hey! You pay attention to me when I’m talking to you!” Morrison had caught on that his captive no longer seemed to be interested in amusing him as he jerked another handful of hair to yank his head back, seeing the wide eyes filled with tears but didn’t seem to be focused on anything.

Furious that Sam didn’t seem to care about the pain he was in or what was to come, the ex-hunter got more enraged when not even slamming a hard fist into the boy’s face got his attention and he was just bringing the blade up again to give a better lesson.

“Now see if you were smart you’d be lowering the blade and letting him go.”

The whiskey smooth voice had very different reactions in the room because while Morrison whirled at the unexpected sound and then stepped behind Sam to place the blade against his throat as if to use him for a shield, Sam seemed to go further into an emotional spiral.

“How’d you get in here, bastard?” Morrison demanded, gripping both his knife and the boy’s hair tightly while glaring at the bearded asshole that had confronted him in the motel parking lot. “You come closer and I’ll cut him!”

Benny shifted his head slightly as if just watching the man calmly while he was really checking to see how lethal the situation was if he moved. “No, I don’t think you will,” he spoke slowly, frowning a little as he took in the new bruises and wounds as well as the way the stitches in Sam’s stretched shoulder looked to have been yanked out. “I’m tellin’ you now to step away from him.”

Hearing Benny’s voice gave Sam mixed feelings. Relief in some small way but he felt more loss and pain at not hearing the rugged and gruff voice of his older brother like he’d grown so used to in these situations.

The sharp pain of his hair being yanked forced Sam’s focus back to the room and he met the vampire’s eyes briefly, surprised to see him coming to the rescue but more surprised by the look of calmness directed at him as if trying to silently reassure the younger man that the situation was well in hand.

“I told you before that this don’t concern you!” Morrison snapped, glaring at the man while letting the blade press hard enough to draw a thin line of blood to the surface. “Back off or I’ll kill him now!”

Seeing the blood, smelling it caused a low ripple to spread through Benny but rather than push it down like he normally would have he smiled again but allowed the fangs to show, chuckling when he watched the human’s eyes go wide as realization hit him.

“You caught him again and I promise you that it won’t be Sam dying,” Benny made a casual move but held back when he caught the way the hunter jerked both Sam’s head and the blade. “Man, you are making a mistake.”

“A damn vampire!” Morrison spit after getting control of his shock upon seeing the fangs. “Looks like the end of the line when Sammy boy has to have a vampire rescue him,” he sneered, hearing the small hiss as the blade again skated against skin. “You gonna kill me, vamp? You think I’m gonna get taken out by some damn freak? You take one step and I’ll kill him.”

Benny held his hands up as if to show he wasn’t moving but he let the fangs retract while smiling a bit more and eyeing the hunter as if he truly pitied him. “Oh, I ain’t gonna you,” he remarked, moving his gaze to Sam before letting it slide to look over Morrison’s shoulder. “But I figure he might.”

Morrison frowned as he watched the vampire, expecting him to make a sudden move. He was just about to make another threat when the sudden cold pressure of a muzzle barrel pressed into the back of his neck, freezing him in place as much as the ice cold low gruff voice that followed did.

“Hey, asshole, I think you have something that belongs to me.”

Sam’s eyes jumped at the sound of his brother’s voice, feeling his breathing catch and he had to fight the urge to twist just to find Dean but he felt the blade tighten a bit more while Benny still seemed calmed even if his posture had changed as if ready to move if he needed to.

“Winchester,” Morrison gritted, wincing as the muzzle pressed harder as if in warning but he could tell without looking that there was no way he could disarm the other man easily. “I’ll…”

“Here’s how this plays, Morrison. You’re going to move your hand real slowly, taking that blade away from my brother and if you so much as scratch him with it again I will end you right here, right now,” Dean’s tone was deep and dark, fury and fear at coming in while the man had been distracted to see the blade at Sam’s throat.

The older man’s teeth clenched, enraged that his plans were falling apart after being so well thought out. Refusing to back down, he decided to call the bluff by wrapping his fingers tighter in Sam’s hair to the point where the boy made a low whimper against the pain.

“I let go and you kill me anyway. What makes the difference, hotshot?” he asked, a sneer in his voice as he still held the knife ready to slice even though it was plain that vampire could move in a flash if he felt it was needed.

Confident that he’d called Dean’s bluff, Morrison grunted as the muzzle shoved harder but this time it shoved into the side of his neck as the man holding the Colt moved slowly to the side.

“The difference is how long it takes you to die and how much screaming you do before you die, asshole,” Dean growled low, green eyes lethal as he locked eyes with the hunter. “Short and quick or long and painful; either’s good for me but what you get depends on how smart you are right now. Get the _hell_ away from my brother or the next sound you hear will be this gun shooting you.”

Sam hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath until his vision began to swim when his head started buzzing from a lack of oxygen and only having his wrists tied like they were kept him standing but he still nearly jerked at the feel of the razor sharp knife when it began to move.

Half expecting the hunter to twist it at the last second to stab him in the throat, he held himself still only to gasp at the touch of a familiar hand laying over the center of his bruised and bloody chest.

“You okay little brother?”

Not able to form a sentence with his heart pounding in his ears and his mouth too dry anyway, Sam waited until he felt the blade move away from his throat to simply offer a slight nod then figured it’d be good if you opened his eyes when he heard a thump, a thud then a groan.

“If he wakes up before I’m done, kill him,” Dean growled over his shoulder before shoving the pistol into his belt to move around to the front of his brother, green eyes slits as he took in the rest of the fresh bruises and wounds on Sam that he could see right then while reaching up to clasp both hands gently on Sam’s face to lift it up. “Sammy? You still with me?”

Suddenly tired, Sam forced his eyes open to meet and hold his older brother’s as he felt a thumb brush over his cheek to wipe at the drying tear tracks. “…De’n…” he whispered, tasting blood again as speaking broke open his dry and bitten bottom lip but he made himself hold that steady gaze. “Thought…he said…you…he said he’d…killed you.”

“He probably wishes now that he had,” Dean replied, feeling the slight fever under his hands as he looked harder to see the slight glassiness of hazel eyes that screamed concussion which probably came from any number of beatings or hits to the head his brother had suffered. “Hang on. I’ll have you down from there in a second.”

Stepping back to see that Morrison was still lying unconscious where the butt of Dean’s weapon against the side of his head put him, he began looking for something to cut the ropes with when Benny pulled the blade he normally carried from under his jacket.

“You want to cut?” the vampire inclined his head to mean he’d support Sam in the meantime so Dean could cut the ropes.

Dean felt the shudder move through Sam and couldn’t be sure if it was his body slipping more into shock now that he knew he was safe or if his brother didn’t want Benny touching him right then. “I have him. You cut those damn things loose,” he nodded to the pulley system of ropes. “Sam, let take the weight when the ropes go because you won’t be able to stand.”

“Boy’s heavy, bro…Dean,” Benny made a conscious effort to watch what he called the elder Winchester and didn’t miss the slight twitch to Sam’s bruised face at the near slip up. “You sure you don’t want to…okay, tell me when you’re ready,” he knew not to argue when Dean gave him the ‘I have it’ look.

Sam hated to be the one ending up needing saved when he swore he’d be the one protecting his brother this time and he wanted to argue that he could hold his own weight just fine except when Dean accidently bumped his right knee and the agony flared up his leg, barely able to stop himself from screaming.

Catching the way Sam’s face went white suddenly, Dean looked down to see that the right knee that he’d noticed days earlier looked swelled was now clearly swelled to the point that he was writing the jeans off as a lost cause the moment it came to treating the wounds and injuries.

“It’s okay, Sammy,” he murmured, being more careful not to nudge or jostle the right knee any more than was needed, Dean stepped up closer to wrap one arm tight around Sam’s waist to support him while using his other to gently push back the pieces of hair that had dropped onto his brother’s face and frowned at the feel of sweat and sticky blood. “You ready?”

If Sam was honest he could’ve said no since he dreaded the pain that was going to come but he wanted his arms free if for no other reason than to check for himself that Dean was really here with him. “Yeah…do it,” he gritted, preparing to clench his teeth.

“Deep breath, little brother,” Dean urged, tightening his grip while wrapping the fingers of his free hand around the back of Sam’s neck to gently guide it until it was leaning against his shoulder before he gave Benny a nod to cut.

While he’d been waiting for Dean to get ready, Benny had found where the ropes had been tied off and chose to cut there while gripping the rope in his hand so once the knot was cut he could hold it and manually lower the ropes holding Sam off the floor.

“Cut,” he remarked, letting his friend know then began to slowly let the ropes move in his grasp so the younger man went down gently rather than forcing either hunter to handle a quick and painful descent.

“Easy, easy…I’ve got’cha, Sammy,” Dean knew the moment the ropes cut because he felt his brother’s body jerk once then he was focusing on supporting the younger man as he gently eased Sam to the floor, being more careful of his right leg when he heard the muffled cry against his shoulder as the pain went through it the first moment Sam’s feet touched the ground. “Easy, just a bit more.”

Sam could feel his muscles wanting to bunch up and knew once full circulation returned to his arms and wrists he’d be in more pain but right then he just wished it was over.

He was fighting the pain as best as he could, listening to Dean talk even while realizing how tense his brother was right then as he struggled to take Sam’s weight while also trying to keep Sam’s mind off the pain.

It seemed like a lifetime for Dean before the damn ropes were loose enough that he ducked his head so that Sam’s still tied hands could slip over and around his neck until he got the kid on the floor to work on those. “Sam? Sammy?” he winced as his own injuries pulled but he chose to ignore those as he eased to the floor supporting his brother by keeping him propped up against his chest. “C’mon, stay with me until I get you outta here, kiddo.”

“Really…you?” Sam’s sounded slurred but now that he wasn’t focusing on staying alive or having to know where Morrison was at all times the shock was setting in. “Not…dead?”

“Yes, it’s really me and no, I’m not dead,” Dean gently lowered Sam’s arms, hearing the groan and hoping neither had been dislocated from hanging so long. “Gonna get your hands free,” he spoke more softly now, using a tone he tended to only drop into when dealing with his brother when Sam was hurt or sick. “Then I’m getting you into the Impala before I deal with this prick.”

Sam slowly felt strong fingers dig into his shoulders until he was able to relax them enough that his arms could stretch out, then he felt Dean begin to work on the ropes binding his wrists together. “Sorry, De’n,” he mumbled, only tensing when he heard the footsteps coming closer.

“For what?” Dean shook his head to warn Benny to not come any closer right then while using his penknife to carefully cut the final ropes away from Sam’s bruised and bloody wrists. “Now if I find a scratch on my car then you may have something to be sorry over.”

“Should’ve…untied…God!” Sam suddenly tensed, nearly curling up as light fingers probed his side and it erupted into white hot pain. “Beat…me there so may have broken ribs.”

Dean was hoping that was all there was to it and that his brother wasn’t bleeding internally but he didn’t care for a lot of the bruises or welts that he could see on Sam right then and just wanted to get him out of there and into the warmth of the Impala.

“Okay, Sammy…we’re getting you up and into the car,” he glanced up to nod at the vampire before carding his fingers back through Sam’s hair much like he’d always done. “I need Benny’s help for this so I want you to let him help you up and then I’ll take it from there.”

Both hunter and vampire waited to see if Sam would agree to this or not. It seemed a long time before slowly Sam looked up to stare at the calmly waiting Benny then tried to turn his head to find his brother and he finally gave a nod since he understood that right then Dean couldn’t move him while still supporting him.

“Just get him up but watch that damn leg,” Dean ordered, his tone back to the no nonsense one that was part growl and part warning.

Benny offered the same smile he normally gave the hunter when amused by him but he made certain to grasp Sam’s left arm rather than the injured right as he helped him stand, then steadied the boy while feeling Sam try not to pass out in pain when it was impossible to keep weight off his right leg. “Dean…”

He’d heard the sound only a second before Dean’s hunter’s senses picked up on it, causing him to roll to his feet with far more agility than he honestly felt like having at the moment but pulled his .45 caliber back out to aim it at the now conscious Morrison.

“You are the stupidest son of a bitch I’ve seen in a long time,” Dean growled, looking back once and the look reflected on Sam’s face was all he needed to see. “Get him out of here,” he spoke back to Benny, adding to prevent the fight he could feel coming. “I’ll be right there, Sammy. After I take care of the garbage.”

Normally Sam might’ve seen fit to remind his brother that hunters didn’t kill humans as a general rule. That was the rule three people in their lives had drilled into both of them, except only Bobby and Pastor Jim had also given the small exception of some people fell into that elusive grey area of being human but not acting like it.

He knew his older brother had killed humans before but only if they’d been threatened and he didn’t want Dean to resort to any of the skills he’d learned in Hell or do something that might bring the memories of Purgatory back to him…but he also didn’t want to have to live the rest of his life wondering when Morrison would show back up.

“Dean…” he stopped to stare at the murderous glare the other hunter was giving them and remembered the year before. “Just…I don’ feel so good.”

“I’ll make it quicker than he deserves, Sammy,” Dean promised, meeting his brother’s eyes briefly and seeing his concern but also the fear and swearing that no one would ever make his brother feel that way again. “Get him outta here.”

Benny understood the rage bubbling inside the hunter but had to admit he was impressed with the change in Dean now.

There was a time he knew the man wouldn’t have buried or dulled the rage and fury he felt for the man who’d made the foolish error of trying to hurt Sam. No, the vampire knew Dean would’ve fallen back to how he was in Purgatory and taken Morrison apart quite literally with his bare hands.

Instead a simple tone and comment from Sam had him reining those darker emotions in because for Dean at the moment it was simply more important to get Sam safe and care for than to do what he wanted to do to the man.

Not that he figured Dean wasn’t going to kill the bastard because Morrison’s fate had been sealed from the second Dean had learned that the man had hurt his brother a year earlier.

“C’mon, Sam,” he was cautious when he adjusted his grip on Sam since he figured he still wasn’t the kid’s favorite person. “Front or back?”

Not hearing his brother’s reply, Dean’s eyes had gone to green steel as they narrowed. “You seriously think you could kidnap Sam, twice, torture him like you did…twice, and not pay for it, Shane?” he smirked, debating on the gun in his hand of the knife under his jacket. “You knew he was running solo without me and figured he was a good target?”

“Something…like that,” Morrison considered pulling his backup pistol when a booted foot stepped down on his wrist. “What’re you think you’re old man or that old drunk would think of you running around with a damn vamp?” he sneered, missing the flash in the younger man’s eyes. “He who you’re replacing Sammy boy with, Dean? You dropping him for a…argh!”

The first bullet went into Morrison’s right shoulder as a way to pay him back for shooting Sam as Dean dropped to one knee to yank the man up to his face. “Sam,” he corrected tightly, making certain the hunter got the point before his fist struck several times to leave his face a bloody mess. “I’m the only one who calls him Sammy, asshole and he’s not replaceable.

“You see, that’s the biggest issue with dicks like you, Shane. You look at Sam and all you see is a big guy who’s made some mistakes along the way in this screwed up thing he calls his life. You see someone to hurt because it’s always been so easy to hurt Sam and you get a kick outta it…but then you make the same mistake everyone else has with him,” Dean stared at the blood dripping off his knuckles to the gasping man on the floor before pushing to his feet. “You forget he’s got a big brother that will kill for him.”

The sound of the .45 in the silent cabin sounded like two mini bombs going off but Dean slid his finger from the trigger after the third round went into the dead man’s heart. “That’s for touching my little brother, asshole,” he spoke to the corpse before turning to walk out without another look or care.

He could hear Benny’s voice talking low in the darkness, guessing he was just talking to keep Sam occupied. Letting out a low whistle to alert the vampire of his approach, Dean rounded the car to see that Sam had chosen the front seat despite how it must have made his injured knee flare.

“Alright?” Benny merely asked to see if it was over and what was needed to be done now to cover it.

“We burn it to the ground,” Dean told him lowly before dropping to his knees outside the open passenger door to see that Sam was wrapped in a blanket from the backseat but still had visible tremors going through him as his body now was fully in shock. “Sammy? You awake yet?”

Sam really wasn’t but at his brother’s voice his head turned to stare at Dean, his left hand reaching up as if looking for something and relaxed when he felt it grabbed. “This…hurts,” he muttered, not objecting when he felt his brother lift his head back to check his eyes. “See…four of Benny.”

“Yep, you’ve got a concussion,” Dean decided, swearing under his breath while making a choice he only did when one of them was seriously hurt or he didn’t trust his own skills at the onset of treatment. “ER time for you, Sammy.”

“Call…Garth?” Sam sounded only partially there but he tried to hold on to Dean’s hand when it went to ease away long enough to shut the door.

Benny had just stepped away to go get the gas cans out of his truck when he paused the moment he sensed the way Dean’s body had gone rigid.

“Why would I call Garth?” Dean asked, leaning back in so he could hear what Sam mumbled next and only his hand on the top of the Impala kept him from falling back to his knees. “No, Sam. I’m not leaving you and Benny’s not staying,” he whispered, meeting the vampire’s eyes in the distance and felt the understanding pass between them. “We’ll talk about this when you wake up.”

“You did a number on him,” Benny remarked then left it alone since he felt the hunter already was feeling enough guilt over that. “I’ll burn this place. You take him to the hospital.”

Dean nodded, wanting to say more but not knowing where to start. “Thanks for being there for him,” he finally chose to start with while accepting the handshake that ended in the usual little one armed hug. “You understand why I can’t…I need to make him understand that I’m not choosing, Benny.”

“You’ve got a little brother to be proud of, brother. I envy you that,” Benny nodded his understanding. “We’re good, Dean. You just watch your backs until I make sure no one else decides to come after you cause of me.”

“Yeah, I could do without that honor again,” Dean returned, slipping into the Impala with a final silent nod and then gazed over at Sam who seemed to have slipped unconscious. “No one’s a better brother than what I’ve got beside me.”

** A week later, a cabin in the Texas Panhandle: **

“No, he’s fine or he will be once he wakes up and no, I don’t need you to ditch Kevin and come here. I think I can still handle…that better not have been a snort, Garth.”

Dean Winchester was tired and it showed in both his voice and his body as he walked back into the private cabin he’d rented in a secluded area since he knew they both needed something more than a dingy hotel this time.

Once leaving Benny to handle burning the evidence and dealing with Shane Morrison’s body so no one would be the wiser, Dean had taken his injured brother to the nearest hospital while working up the easiest excuse for Sam’s injuries that he could that didn’t requires overtaxing his own exhausted brains.

The excuse of Sam getting attacked and nearly killed by pissed off bikers had been a stretch but his brother’s wounds seemed to make the staff believe it once he’d convinced an overly helpful nurse that he hadn’t done to this Sam himself since he guessed in his own ragged shape he looked one step up from a week long excursion with some interesting alcohol.

Dean had suspected and got confirmation that the worst wounds would be the infected and reopened bullet holes in Sam’s right shoulder.

He’d stood by and watched as the ER docs finished removing stitches that had looked like they’d been ripped out with pliers while blindly wondering how in the hell Benny had gotten his brother still long enough to stitch it up to begin with.

Sam’s right knew was a mess and Dean made a note to buy his brother a new pair of jeans because as he guessed earlier that pair was trash the second they’d been cut off just to get to the swelled body part.

Extensive x-rays and an MRI had assured him that there’d been no lasting damage even though it was swelled four times what it should’ve been but once they’d drained some excess liquid, of which Dean gagged his way through since leaving Sam had been out of the question, it had slowly began to look a little better.

The new wounds ranged from shallow cuts to a few that needed stitches to removing a couple thumb tacks that had been embedded in the skin at the small of Sam’s back which as Dean now could see had an interesting array of older scars that made him wish he’d killed Morrison a bit slower.

The lack of nutrition and fluids had been a bit harder to explain since Dean hadn’t known how long it had been since his brother had actually eaten real food since for that matter Dean was still unclear when the last time he’d ingested anything more than simple things to keep him going for the moment.

Sam, for his part, hadn’t been much of a help when he regained partial consciousness because he refused to answer anything asked by anyone that wasn’t Dean so it took a good hour of hits and misses before the doctors decided to keep Sam overnight to at least give him some IVs of fluid, antibiotics, and some killer pain meds that reduced his already loopy sibling to a mumbling and clingy mess.

Because they were too close to where too much crap had happened, Dean was anxious to get Sam farther away and so once his brother was at least able to keep his glassy eyes open long enough to sign his name, they got him out of the house against several medical professionals advice and Dean drove until he and the Impala couldn’t go anymore.

A sign proclaiming private rental cabins by a secluded lake came into view and Dean took it without further thought since he’d been debating on where to go.

He didn’t think either of them could handle a cheap motel since he was only too aware of how Sam could get when sick and fevered and he wasn’t too good himself now that he wasn’t focusing so hard on other things but Dean also was aware of how Sam would react if he woke up at Jefferson’s place.

Sam had always feared when he was a kid of being left behind if their Dad decided he was a liability on a hunt and once when Sam had come down with a serious case of the flu John had left his youngest son in the care of Pastor Jim while taking Dean with him.

Even now, twenty years later, Dean could still recall the late night call from Jim Murphy and how it took Dean over an hour to calm his sobbing and crying little brother down. Trying to reassure Sam that he hadn’t been abandoned or left and that they’d be home in a few days, he’d promised himself that he’d always be there when Sam woke up and usually he had been…except for a few damn times.

The cabin he rented wasn’t big but it had two bedrooms, though only one was being used at the moment, a kitchen, a good sized bathroom with a shower that Dean nearly proclaimed was from God when he first felt the hot water and actual water pressure.

Sam drifted in and out of sleep but mostly when he was half awake he wasn’t with it enough to make more than soft mumbles or whimpers of pain if it was when Dean was cleaning or dressing the wounds.

The doctors had given Dean a prescription for the good stuff since Sam’s knee would be in pain and needed to be immobilized in the brace for at least another week before he could start trying to put real weight on it.

Dean had always enjoyed when Sam and sick and fevered or doped on pain meds because his little brother could say some off the wall shit when like that, even though he was coming up with some stuff that involved Caleb that Dean wasn’t sure he liked.

He also decided that this time Sam wouldn’t be as fun to listen to when he would go from whimpering in pain to crying for Dean but it was when his brother reached the point of begging his big brother to forgive him for not looking for him, that he didn’t want to be left alone again or replaced…again that Dean decided to target practice against the tress or risk losing it in a way that he wasn’t ready to yet.

However it was only two nights later while trying to sleep the floor next to Sam’s bed that that moment finally came when Sam woke up or opened his eyes even though it was plain that he wasn’t awake and screamed for Dean.

Knowing that his brother had the type of bad dream that would require more than a hand on the chest or a gentle shake to bring him out of since Sam’s fever hadn’t fully broke yet, Dean resorted to his old time baby brother nightmare method of sitting next to him to pull Sam over until he was leaning against Dean’s shoulder and he began talking in the tone that no one ever heard him use except Sam.

It took a good ten minutes of listening to Sam whimper and talk in his sleep for Dean to realize that Benny had told Sam something about the damn shapeshifters while in Purgatory and he swore to beat the vampire to a pulp for that because of any monster he could’ve told his brother about the shapeshifters would be the worst one.

Ever since that mess in St. Louis eight years earlier Sam had serious problems with the things and while Dean didn’t care for them, especially now, he knew only too well how his little brother hated them and why.

Soothing Sam down, reassuring him that he was fine, that Dean was fine took a lot more energy than he’d had right then and by the time Sam had slipped back into a semi-relaxed sleep the older Winchester had been on the ragged end of too much emotion.

Emotions he’d kept buried and hidden from Sam since his return from Hell’s backyard. Dean wasn’t aware of the tears he was crying until he felt them drop on the hand he hand gripped around Sam’s one bandaged wrist and knew at that point that there was no pulling back from it then and had finally let go.

He’d been glad Sam slept through the scene of his stubborn macho no chick flick moments older brother crying as he remembered only too well the pain he’d endured in Purgatory, the loss of those little pieces of humanity just to survive and the need to get back to his little brother.

After that Dean had to admit that he was more relaxed and while he didn’t know if he could tell Sam everything about Purgatory he knew what he did have to talk to his brother about…if the kid ever woke up with clear eyes.

Today as he sat beside Sam to wipe him clean of sweat and dried ointment as he redressed the wounds that still needed it, Dean ran a hand over the thin lines of scar tissue along Sam’s upper back and wished wherever the hell Morrison went after death that the monsters who lived there ripped the bastard apart for the pain his little brother had endured twice at his hands.

The fever broke fully in the middle of the night which reminded Dean that while Sam was four years younger, he was also four inches taller and several pounds heavier as he tried to change the sheets without moving his brother fully.

Now Dean ran a cool cloth back over Sam’s face and over his shaggy hair a few times before sighing in the room, hating the silence more than anything.

The place had cable and even had Wi-Fi since Dean knew better than to park his brother anywhere for extended periods of time and not have Wi-Fi access.

Sam was a geek who often moaned and bitched about Dean’s compulsions but put the kid in a place without access to the Web and Dean had literally watched his little brother slowly freak out to the point where it no longer was funny and he’d moved them to a different motel before the night was up.

He had an old radio on in the background just to have some noise to drown out his own too loud thoughts but by now all Dean really wanted to hear was his brother’s voice. He just needed to hear…

“… De’n?”

Sam’s voice was ragged and almost a harsh whisper but to Dean it sounded like a jet engine, making him nearly jump and drop the rag back in the bowl of water he’d been using as he swung his head around to see half opened but much clearer hazel eyes gazing up at him.

“Sammy,” putting the bowl aside, Dean reached up to lightly brush the hair back from Sam’s eyes to both make certain the fever wasn’t coming back and so he could have full access to his brother’s eyes to see if his pupils had finally gone back to normal. “Hey, you back with me?”

“Not…sure,” Sam admitted, wincing at the sound of his own voice but tried to keep his wavering eyes locked on the sight of his older brother sitting beside him. “Still…here?”

Frowning a little over that, it took Dean a heartbeat to understand and sighed with a small smile while moving his hand to the back of Sam’s neck to help him lift it to take a sip of water. “Yeah, little brother, you’re still here and so am I,” he replied.

It broke Dean a little to know that Sam thought he’d be gone when he woke up or that he expected Dean to leave him with someone else but he supposed after the way he’d been treating his brother, the hurtful little jabs at him, that he should’ve been expecting it.

Sam was able to swallow three little mouthfuls of blissfully cold water before making a face that meant he’d had enough and felt his head being lowered but was surprised when the strong fingers gripping his neck didn’t move away. “Where…we…at?” he asked, trying to look around the room but even the slightest movement of his eyes made his head swim.

“Cabin in the woods somewhere in the panhandle,” Dean replied, shrugging while only moving his hand enough so that it remained on the side of his brother’s neck much like he’d hold years earlier when needing to give some kind of support. “No real clue where. Just followed the signs and we’ve got it for another week with a third in the wings if we need it.”

Blinking slowly as his still fuzzy head did some math; Sam managed a tiny frown when it hit him that he must have been unconscious for a week or more. “How…long?”

“You’ve been in and out for over a week but the doctors said that was normal so I wasn’t too freaked,” Dean refused to admit that he had been freaked out more than once by Sam’s lack of waking up. “How many of me do you see this time?”

“One’s usually enough,” Sam muttered, closing his eyes and missing the amused smirk that answer got him as he began to recall recent events and felt a warm hand press into the center of his chest as soon as his breathing picked up.

Even as a kid, Sam had needed some type of physical contact to ground him if the injuries were too bad or he was sick and while Dean wasn’t the most emotionally open man he’d always been the one to sense when to touch his brother or how to touch him since there were times and places you did not touch Sam without seeing stars.

Usually a hand to the neck or on his chest was enough to calm Sam down and as Dean felt his brother’s breathing slow down again he knew it had been this time as well.

“Morrison’s dead but as far as the community goes he just dropped off the face of the earth and I seriously don’t think most of it will mind or so Garth said,” Dean assured his brother, guessing that was a huge part of Sam’s near panic attack. “Sorry I didn’t get to you sooner, Sammy,” he sighed, wishing that Castiel had for once answered his damn call.

“Huh?” Sam blinked, hearing the tone of voice and knowing Dean blamed himself and not understanding it; though he didn’t understand a lot of things right then. “Not…your fault,” he winced as he tried to move a little and felt pain. “Bad?”

“Yeah, it was my fault and no, you’re not hurt too bad…just a little bad,” Dean replied, seeing the way his brother’s forehead gave that little scrunched up furrow and motioning down to the knee. “You have a slight concussion which considering the baseball size lump on the size of that hard head it’s a shock it wasn’t more. Some of the wounds, like the bullet hole in your shoulder that you neglected to tell me about, were infected but the knee is the worst one.”

Sam could now see his right knee encased in a heavy brace over jeans that he knew were new and bit his lip when he went to test the movement until a firm hand clamped down on his leg right above it, pressing down in a warning to not even think about moving it.

“Move that right now and I can promise you will throw up in pain, so let it alone,” Dean ordered in pure older brother voice, then he pushed to his feet and was pleased when he only swayed a little but it was enough that Sam still caught it. “I’m fine.”

Dean didn’t look fine to Sam. His brother looked like three day old roadkill and that was only a way Sam seen him when Dean was too busy looking after him to take care of himself.

Watching as Dean walked to the bedroom window to open it, allowing fresh air into the room which he hadn’t wanted while Sam was running a fever and sweating so much.

Sam could tell Dean was tired because his green eyes, while alert, look shadowed and he showed signs of not having shaved yet which was something his brother did every morning religiously unless distracted.

In the heat of the cabin, Dean had sworn off the flannel over shirt to just wear a t-shirt and Sam’s eyes went to the still visible bruises and the few bite marks he could see. “You…okay?”

“Remind me to see if you can think in full sentences,” Dean turned to meet his eyes and smiled, actually smiled, at the tiny bitch face he was getting and understood the question. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he replied then sighed. “Okay, Samantha, I’m as fine as I can be for being used as a vampires’ chew toy. Happy?”

The teasing didn’t escape Sam nor did his brother’s mood which was suddenly making him nervous since this wasn’t how he was used to Dean being. “ _Christo_ ,” he mumbled under his breath, jumping at a sound that he hadn’t heard in more months than he cared to think about…his brother’s laugh.

Even before Purgatory it was rare to get Dean’s full laugh; the laugh his brother used to give more freely when they’d been kids. These days it was next to impossible to get his brother to smile without seeming faked or force much less a laugh so hearing it now gave Sam a moment to wonder if he wasn’t still fevered and dreaming this.

“I’m not a demon, Sammy and no, you’re not hallucinating again either,” Dean walked back to sit on the bed. “I’ve been a real jackass to you, haven’t I?”

Sam’s eyes dropped to look at his wrists, noticing he still wore the black bracelet and wondered if he should offer it back to his brother…even if he still had his doubts if this really was Dean since he sure wasn’t acting like the brother he’d been traveling with.

“Are you gonna make me do the whole silver knife thing, Sam?” Dean suspected his change in attitude was probably scaring the crap out of Sam in lieu to what Benny must have told him. “I’m not a ‘shifter, little brother but I will if it’ll make you look at me.”

“What’s…wrong?” Sam sighed, wishing he could actually think of something to say that did require a full sentence but still felt so tired and leery.

“Nothing’s wrong or at least nothing more than usual for us,” Dean wondered how to do this before he just said the hell with it and went with his gut. “Why didn’t you tell me about Morrison jumping you, Sam?” he asked, reaching over to grip a hand before Sam could try to move away. “Did you honestly think I wouldn’t care that some bastard and his buddies nailed you, hurt you like they did and that’s why you dropped outta sight and outta hunting?”

Sam wasn’t sure he was ready for this confrontation yet but knew it needed to come out so Dean could move on even if Sam didn’t know where that would leave them.

“Wanted to,” he began slowly, trying to push himself up but grunting as he was even too weak for that until he felt his brother’s strong hands helping until he was finally leaning against the headboards a bit more. “Soon as I…saw you I wanted to tell you but…then I got scared and…went with…”

“You hit a dog and met a girl,” Dean snorted, keeping a hand on Sam’s arm to ensure some type of contact for this. “You know if my head had been on straight I would’ve called that bullshit for what it was cause I should’ve known something else happened to make you run. How bad was it?”

“Bad enough,” Sam hedged, not wanting those memories on top of the more recent ones. “Then you hated me for not looking, for letting you down and I…didn’t wanna tell you that I got jumped by hunters cause yeah, you already didn’t think I could have your back like…” he broke off to look down at the fingers as they tightened and loosened on his arm. “Benny, he…I guess I can see why…he told me…Dean?”

Tensing at that, Dean kept his eyes away from Sam for a long moment until he felt a hesitant touch on his hand and made himself look up into eyes that showed his little brother’s fear and worry.

“What he tell you, Sam?” he asked finally, knowing it didn’t matter but curious to how the vampire described their adventures in Purgatory.

“He said it was like a war and that you and he survived day by day by fighting that war and that you hadn’t really slept until you met up with him,” Sam frowned as he tried to recall what he’d been told. “He said…you talked about…me.”

Dean chuckled, figuring that Benny downplayed a lot because he’d known that Dean hadn’t wanted Sam to know too much. “Yeah, a mortal sleeping in Purgatory wasn’t exactly a safe thing to do,” he admitted, coughing to clear his throat. “Sam, I told you before that it was pure down there and it was but it gain that it meant shedding everything else.

“To survive, and that’s what I was doing, meant losing the humanity I still had left after Hell. Before meeting up with Benny and even after, surviving meant doing crap I never once in my life thought possible or that I’d have to do unless it came to protecting you,” he looked up to see that he had Sam’s full attention then went on slowly. “Working with Benny was hard at first because of what he was and because he wasn’t you but the first time I got sloppy and nearly got killed and he was there it became plain I needed his help.

“He had a way out, I wanted out so fighting together in that place it formed a sort of bond that I can’t say I’ve ever had with anyone, even you,” this time Dean heard the soft whisper and felt the body next to him go rigid but he reached up to lift his brother’s face so their eyes met. “You and me have a different kind of bond, Sammy.

“We grew up together, we live through hell together in more ways than one and…we’ve died for one another. We’re brothers, blood makes us that but the crap Dad raised us in, the stuff we’ve survived makes us stronger brothers in ways that no one can ever break,” he lifted a brow but didn’t turn away as he watched the tears fill in burgeoning puppy dog eyes.

“Benny calls me brother because we survived something that I would be dead before you even came close to seeing or dealing with and…when I said he was a better one than you…that was wrong and I said it to hurt you because I was pissed off and hurting myself but no one, not Benny, not Cas, no one will ever be a better brother to me than the little brother I’ve had all of his life.”

Sam felt the tightness in his chest and he wanted to look away from Dean’s intense eyes but afraid to, afraid if he did he’d wake up to find that this was all a dream. “I…looked, De’n,” he whispered, unaware of when he dropped a letter in his brother’s name and wishing he had the courage to risk taking the step he wanted to. “I tried to find you, I wanted…”

“I know, Sammy,” Dean smiled again, moving his hand so he could lightly grip the back of Sam’s neck again while leaning close enough so that their foreheads touched. “I talked to Jeff so I know you were running yourself into the ground when Morrison nailed you. I shouldn’t have blamed you without finding out the truth or I should’ve seen the signs that you were hiding.”

Knowing Sam, Dean could practically see what was going through his brother’s head and sighed. “Benny knew he was a cheap replacement for you down there and hell yeah, I talked nonstop about my pain in the ass little brother,” he coughed to cover his unease for what he was about to say. “I missed you, Sammy and I think that’s how that damn ‘shifter got so close…no, don’t move,” he felt Sam tense at that and shook his head at the unspoken fear.

“I let it get too close. Even though I knew it couldn’t have been you, I missed you so much that a part of me wanted it to be and by the time I realized the truth I was on the ground and it…Benny was there then and killed it and I knew I had to distance myself from the emotion if I stood any chance of making it outta there to find you,” he ignored the tears he felt drop on his hand, giving his brother all the chick flick time he needed if this would start to make it right.

“When I got back, after I kept up my end of the deal to bring Benny back, I didn’t realize how much of those emotions I’d walled up until you walked into Rufus’s cabin. I think I could tell something was off with you but the edges were still so damn raw that it wasn’t until now, until it hit me that you were walking into a nest of vampires for me and Benny threatened to pound me for what I was doing that I’d been so unfair to you,” he used his other hand to rub over his eyes before lightly squeezing Sam’s neck again.

“You thought I’d let you down but I guess that’s what I do. I let down the people that I love,” Sam murmured with a one shouldered shrug, still unsure of what he was hearing. “I came because you’re my big brother and it didn’t matter if you wanted me gone or didn’t want me there…I wasn’t losing you again like that.”

Dean’s eyes had narrowed slightly as he heard his own words come from Sam’s mouth because he recalled saying that very thing the night he’d sat by his little brother’s body after he’d been stabbed and killed in Cold Oak.

“You’ve never let me down, Sammy,” he squeezed harder to make his point, seeing when Sam’s eyes looked up and nearly broke at the look of loss reflected deep in those huge wet eyes that always could make him give in to his brother. “You’ve down things for me that no sane brother would have, especially after some of the crap I’ve laid on you.

“Hell, you’ve saved the world from the damn freakin’ Apocalypse. You’ve fought off Lucifer and tried to save me when I was sure to die by that Egyptian God thing,” he shook his head while softening his smile as he once again carded his fingers back through hair that he was now going to complain to Sam was too long. “You will always be my little brother and even when I’m a jackass I know you’ll have my back like I will always have yours.”

Sam felt the sob try to break through as he held Dean’s gaze and read the truth and the emotion there. Exhaustion and pain made it hard to clamp down on his feelings suddenly as flashes of memory hit him and he could see Dean fighting the withdrawal, he could see him in that nest and he could recall the gut wrenching fear of thinking his brother was dead from Morrison.

“He…said…I wouldn’t untie you and he said…he said you were dead, Dean!” the words rushed out suddenly and all of the last week or so worth of emotion broke through Sam’s walls as his fingers suddenly found themselves clenched in his brother’s t-shirt. “I thought…dead! I thought you were dead and it was just like the day in Roman’s office when I didn’t know and…”

“Hey, hey, wait a minute,” Dean had seen the change in Sam only a moment before the walls broke and he suddenly had his arms full of a sobbing, fear wracked little brother whose pain and exhaustion had just overwhelmed him finally on top of everything else he’d been keeping inside. “Sam…Sammy, shhh, calm down. I’m not dead and…”

Dean understood that Sam wouldn’t have known that. That his brother would’ve had no way to know that Morrison hadn’t killed him and finally just gave up trying to say that  in favor of doing something he hadn’t in years.

The general rule of no chick flick moments normally didn’t allow times like this to happen but Sam had always been the more emotional one and Dean figured he had some extra chick flick time saved up and so just wrapped his emotionally drained baby brother in his arms to hold him while he got it out.

Not since Sam’s soul had been restored had Sam had this big a breakdown but Dean knew they’d both been through so much that it was only right, especially since he knew he’d put his brother through hell with how he’d been treating him and since Sam had watched him fight the drugs he’d been given by Benny’s brother.

“It’s gonna be okay, Sammy. We’re gonna be good,” he promised quietly, sitting still and letting his hand card through Sam’s hair in a soothing motion until finally he felt his brother’s body relaxing against him and he laid him back but noticed that Sam still had a death grip on his shirt. “Guess you want me to stay here?”

“Yah,” Sam mumbled, body and mind numb after that outpouring and just wanting to sleep but he needed to still know his brother was with him. “De’n?”

“Yeah, Sammy?” Dean grinned in mock frustration when he’d gotten one hand unclenched from his shirt so he could move up to lean against the headboard only to find another hand latched onto the bottom of it. “You know, I lost my shirts as a kid like this when I needed to move and you wouldn’t let go?”

Sam opened his eyes a little to watch his brother settle back against the headboard with one leg propped over the over in a way that meant Dean would stay until he woke up again. “We good?”

“We are unless I find a scratch on my car then I will so kick your ass, baby brother,” Dean replied easily, relaxing when he heard the soft laugh before Sam’s eyes closed and he fell back to sleep and it was only when he was certain that Sam was asleep that Dean frowned a little.

He hoped he’d gotten through to Sam that no one would ever replace him as his brother and that he wasn’t choosing Benny over him.

Dean knew they both had a ways to go in the healing department, both from this and emotionally but he’d do it even if it meant admitting everything about Purgatory to Sam and what else he’d seen or done there while also promising as soon as he could get to his phone again to make certain Jeff knew to pass the word that the next goddamn hunter that came after his brother would eat a vital organ.

Smoothing a hand over Sam’s arm, Dean let his head rest against the headboard to close his eyes and let himself sleep for the first time in over a week knowing they were safe for the moment and knowing that Sam wouldn’t be a happy little brother once he learned he was on bed rest until he could stand on his leg without shooting major bitch faces.

“Should call Garth for that one,” he muttered, smirking at the thought of the skinny hunter trying to convince Sam to stay in bed once he was awake enough that boredom sank in and he figured out he also had to unfreeze his computer again. “Maybe not.”

Sam wasn’t sure how long he’d slept before waking up when he’d accidently shifted his leg to cause pain to sear. Looking over to see that his fingers had cramped where they still gripped Dean’s t-shirt, he smiled a little upon seeing that his brother was still with him.

He knew they had a ways to go because Dean would still have questions about the time Sam hadn’t told him about which was fair since he still had questions for his brother but right then he felt relaxed and at ease for the first time since Dean’s return.

“Dean?” the whisper was soft but Sam still grinned when he felt the hand on his arm squeeze in a way that meant his brother was awake and probably had been from his first movement. “Can we go fishing once I can walk?”

They’d gone fishing before as kids or when they’d been on a case and needed food but it was rare for them to be off work and have a chance to actually fish.

Sam enjoyed it and while his brother bitched and moaned he knew Dean did too. It was just a matter of getting him to agree to it but Sam wasn’t above using puppy eyes to get what he wanted.

“You catch ‘em, you’re cleaning them, Sammy,” Dean yawned, not opening his eyes but the faint upturn of his mouth gave away the grin that came at Sam’s huff. “I’ll cook.”

“Fine,” Sam grumbled, going back to sleep when he felt a hand brushing through his hair and relaxing until he heard his brother’s next comment.

“But if you get the brilliant plan to push me that water…I will drown your ass, Sam.”

 

**The End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who read this and I hope you enjoyed it. I apologize for the delays in between chapters but the boys don’t always cooperate when it comes to what I plot. Hopefully I tied it all up.  
> Stay tuned for new stuff soon and be sure to look me up on Facebook under morgana07 for comments, questions or anything.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, a tiny little cliffey on the first chapter. Did you expect anything else from me? So, what do we think Sam found in the bathroom? Will Dean be food? What are the vampires really after? And…is there more to this last year for both brother than either is aware? Stay tuned. Will update soon.


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